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As little as 10 years ago, implementing a substance abuse testing program was difficult. Employees challenged owners that it wasn't constitutional. Similarly, many owners felt it would send the wrong message to employees - a message that they just weren't trustworthy. But it seems times are changing. In 1983, less than 1% of employees nationwide were subject to drug screening. Today, approximately 49% of full-time workers must undergo some form of workplace drug testing, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in Rockville, Md.
That's good news for electrical contractors - when you consider the fact that the construction industry currently has a higher rate of documented illicit drug use than any other specific industry tracked by the Department of Labor (DOL), as shown in Fig. 1 on page C32.
"We think we know about the people in our current employment, but we don't know the problems of new hires," said Dennis Thomas, president of Thomco Electric in Beltsville, Md., and national president of the Independent Electrical Contractor's Association (IEC) at a recent industry trade show. "Then again, do we really know our current employees' problems?"
When you look at national statistics for substance abusers, the answer to this question is usually "no."
Statistical snapshot on substance abuse
In the United States today, 73% of drug users are employed, 33% of employees know of the illegal sale of drugs in their workplace, and 20% of young workers admit to using marijuana on the job, according to a recent DOL report released in March 2006. In the same study, the National Cocaine Helpline, Summit, N.J., revealed that 75% of addicts use drugs on the job, 64% admitted that drugs adversely affected their job performance, 44% sold drugs to other employees, and 18% had stolen from co-workers to support their drug habit.
Another alarming statistic from the DOL's "2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health" reveals that the largest group of substance abusers comes from the 18- to 25-year-old age bracket. This should be of particular concern to electrical contracting firms, as the construction industry draws heavily from the pool of workers 18 to 34 years old (Fig. 2 on page C32).
Small businesses (classified as those with fewer than 250 employees)...