Bechtel v. Culpepper

No. 9018 (Tenn. Ch. White County Dec. 20, 1996). ; Clearinghouse Number: 51559

Description

Employee’s Refusal to Take Drug Test Not Misconduct

Abstract

The court has reversed the Tennessee Department of Employment Security Board of Review’s denial of petitioner’s claim for unemployment compensation benefits; the board based its denial on the finding that employee’s refusal to take a drug test was misconduct. Soon after divorcing the sister-in-law of employer’s plant superintendent, the superintendent complained to a vice president about employee’s attendance and appearance. When employer demanded that employee, who had worked for employer for 12 years, take a drug test, employee refused because employer’s established drug policy offered no basis for taking it. Employer fired employee and claimed it had the right to demand a drug test based on employee’s job performance, appearance, attendance, and a right to do random testing. The court rejected each of employer’s reasons for testing employee. Employer’s random testing policy applied only to workers during their first year of employment. The complaints concerning appearance and performance were based on unreliable hearsay. The only absences occurred two and four months before the drug-test request, and the court found this to be "nothing more than pretext for demanding a drug test." A recent amendment to state unemployment compensation law, which requires that the claimant "has not left such claimant’s most recent work . . . to avoid taking a drug or alcohol screening test, was inapplicable because employee had not left work to avoid taking a drug test and because employer’s violation of its own drug-testing policy made it inapplicable.

Additional Information

Attorney Information
Petitioner represented by William Bush, Rural Legal Services of Tennessee, Inc., Courthouse Square, P.O. Box 637, Cookeville, TN 38503; (615) 528-7436.
Docket Date
1996-12-20 00:00:00+00:00