Fentress County Commissioners have updated the county’s drug testing policy determining the deadline for those subject to a test based on reasonable suspicion.
Human Resources Director Shelli Dalton said employees must now complete the drug test before the end of the same business day when a test becomes necessary. Dalton said the policy does not apply to anyone selected for a random drug test.
“I just done it to the reasonable suspicion because I just done my random just last week,” Dalton said. “It’s hard to tell volunteer fire that they have to go on the same day when they might have a job that they’re not in town so I try to give them a little leeway.”
Dalton said drug tests from reasonable suspicion can only be called for while an employee is actually at work. Dalton said the test will be deemed as a failure if the employee refuses the test or fails to meet the deadline.
“What I’m getting at is if it’s not someone that’s at work at they’re out of town, you know,” County Commissioner Larry Cooper said. “But I understand if it’s someone at work and supervisor calls us and says ‘hey, I’ve got reasonable suspicion.'”
County Attorney Leslie Ledbetter said a policy like this is standard procedure for reasonable suspicion drug tests. Ledbetter said courts use the same end-of-day deadline for people called in for those kinds of drug tests.
