Drugs in a Working Environment

By: Alissa Coschigano


In Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, a now unemployed Sue Bates was fired from her job of 22 years, due to a certain medicine she was taking. As jobs keep hiring more and more employees, the list of things that are deemed as unsafe is growing. Certain jobs disapprove of the use of drugs and now it is getting even more serious, where they are looking to disapprove of prescription drugs that their employees are taking. For Sue Bates, it ended all to soon, according to the article "Drug Testing Poses Quandary for Employers" in the New York Times by Katie Zezima and Abby Goodnough.
After being fired for a such a ridiculous reason, Bates took action by firing the employer, Dura Automotive Systems, where she worked as an assembly line worker. The issue of privacy came into play where Bates felt violated by the company because they personally invaded her life to find out what prescription drugs she was taking, personally given to her by her doctor! Dura decided to run drug testings and hired an independent company to administer these tets. They chose to screen for 12 types of drugs, including hydrocodone and oxycodone.
Reports were made within the company of people passing around illegal drugs, which is why these tests were made. Even with that being the issue, to go further into someone's life and fire them for something that they need to take for medical reasons only is obsurd. When it comes down to it, we do not have as much protection of privacy as we are led to believe.