Federal Register: June 14, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 115)
DOCID: FR Doc 01-15072
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Transportation Department
CFR Citation: 49 CFR Part 40
RIN ID: RIN 2105-AC49
DOCUMENT ID: [Docket OST-99-6578]
NOTICE: RULES
ACTION: Workplace drug and alcohol testing programs:
DOCUMENT ACTION: Request for comments on final rule.
SUBJECT CATEGORY:
Procedures for Transportation Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs
DATES: Comments on 40 CFR 40.25 must be received by July 16, 2001.
DOCUMENT SUMMARY:
On December 19, 2000, the Department of Transportation published its final rule on drug and alcohol testing procedures. One provision of this rule requires employers to inquire into the drug and alcohol testing records of applicants for employment. A group of maritime industry organizations requested that the Department provide a comment period on this provision. In response to this request, the Department is opening a comment period for 30 days.
SUMMARY:
Procedures; revision—; Comments requested,
SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION
On December 19, 2000 (65 FR 79462), the Department published a final rule revising its drug and alcohol testing procedures (49 CFR Part 40). One provision of this rule, Sec. 40.25, requires employers to make inquiries about the drug and alcohol testing history of applicants for employment in jobs involving the performance of safetysensitive functions. The employee must provide a written consent to the inquiry before it is made. The purpose of the provision is to ensure that new employers have the opportunity to learn about recent violations (within two years of the application) of the Department's rules. This information is important to allow employers to comply with the obligation to ensure that employees fully complete returntoduty process requirements. The provision is based on a long standing provision of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's drug and alcohol testing rule (49 CFR Part 382).
The history of this provision in the Part 40 rulemaking is as follows: In Sec. 40.329 of the Department's December 1999 notice of rulemaking (NPRM) on this subject, the Department proposed allowing medical review officers (MROs) to provide information on employees' drug test results to thirdparty employers under some circumstances. Most commenters, while agreeing that providing information to third party employers about violations of drug testing rules has value for safety purposes, found the specifics of the proposal problematical. Some urged the Department to find an alternative. Employing a provision like the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration provision mandating preemployment inquiries about applicants' drug and alcohol testing history was one suggestion mentioned in comments (see 65 FR 79475, December 19, 2000). An agency is entitled to respond to comments on a proposed rule by changing, adding, or deleting provisions. As explained in the preamble to the final rule, this is the course the Department chose in moving from the NPRM's Sec. 40.329 to the final rule's Sec. 40.25.
Nevertheless, a group of maritime organizations requested that the Department open a comment period for the purpose of commenting on Sec. 40.25. While we believe the Department acted fully in accordance with all applicable rulemaking procedures, we will, in response to this request, open a comment period on the provision for 30 days. We are able to be responsive to this request because we have sufficient time, before the August 1, 2001, effective date of the revised Part 40, to consider comments and make any changes we believe to be appropriate without disrupting the implementation of the rule. We do not believe that a longer period is needed to provide comments on this one particular provision of the rule that we published on December 19, 2001. Interested persons should therefore be able to comment readily within the 30day period.
The groups that requested the opportunity to comment on this provision of the final rule also requested that the Department suspend the implementation of Sec. 40.25. This provision goes into effect August 1, 2001. It is not necessary to suspend a provision that is not yet in effect.
Please note that this opportunity for comment concerns only
Sec. 40.25, and the Department is not accepting comments on other
provisions of the rule at this time. For readers' convenience, we are reprinting below the text of Sec. 40.25:
Section 40.25 Must an employer check on the drug and alcohol testing
record of employees it is intending to use to perform safetysensitive duties?
(a) Yes, as an employer, you must, after obtaining an employee's
written consent, request the information about the employee listed in
paragraph (b) of this section. This requirement applies only to
employees seeking to begin performing safetysensitive duties for you
for the first time (i.e., a new hire, an employee transfers into a
safetysensitive position). If the employee refuses to provide this
written consent, you must not permit the employee to perform safety sensitive functions.
(b) You must request the information listed in this paragraph (b)
from DOTregulated employers who have employed the employee during any
period during the two years before the date of the employee's application or transfer:
(1) Alcohol tests with a result of 0.04 or higher alcohol concentration;
(2) Verified positive drug tests;
(3) Refusals to be tested (including verified adulterated or substituted drug test results);
(4) Other violations of DOT agency drug and alcohol testing regulations; and
(5) With respect to any employee who violated a DOT drug and
alcohol regulation, documentation of the employee's successful
completion of DOT returntoduty requirements (including followup
tests). If the previous employer does not have information about the
returntoduty process (e.g., an employer who did not hire an employee
who tested positive on a preemployment test), you must seek to obtain this information from the employee.
(c) The information obtained from a previous employer includes any
drug or alcohol test information obtained from previous employers under this section or other applicable DOT agency regulations.
(d) If feasible, you must obtain and review this information before
the employee first performs safetysensitive functions. If this is not
feasible, you must obtain and review the information as soon as
possible. However, you must not permit the employee to perform safety
sensitive functions after 30 days from the date on which the employee
first performed safetysensitive functions, unless you have obtained or
made and documented a good faith effort to obtain this information.
(e) If you obtain information that the employee has violated a DOT
agency drug and alcohol regulation, you must not use the employee to
perform safetysensitive functions unless you also obtain information
that the employee has subsequently complied with the returntoduty
requirements of Subpart O of this part and DOT agency drug and alcohol regulations.
(f) You must provide to each of the employers from whom you request
information under paragraph (b) of this section written consent for the
release of the information cited in paragraph (a) of this section.
(g) The release of information under this section must be in any
written form (e.g., fax, email, letter) that ensures confidentiality.
As the previous employer, you must maintain a written record of the
information released, including the date, the party to whom it was released, and a summary of the information provided.
(h) If you are an employer from whom information is requested under
paragraph (b) of this section, you must, after reviewing the employee's specific, written consent, immediately release the
[[Page 32250]]
requested information to the employer making the inquiry.
(i) As the employer requesting the information required under this
section, you must maintain a written, confidential record of the
information you obtain or of the good faith efforts you made to obtain
the information. You must retain this information for three years from
the date of the employee's first performance of safetysensitive duties for you.
(j) As the employer, you must also ask the employee whether he or
she has tested positive, or refused to test, on any preemployment drug
or alcohol test administered by an employer to which the employee
applied for, but did not obtain, safetysensitive transportation work
covered by DOT agency drug and alcohol testing rules during the past
two years. If the employee admits that he or she had a positive test or
a refusal to test, you must not use the employee to perform safety
sensitive functions for you, until and unless the employee documents
successful completion of the returntoduty process (see paragraphs (b)(5) and (e) of this section).
Regulatory Analyses and Notices
The Department has previously considered all of 49 CFR Part 40 with respect to rulemaking process requirements (see 65 FR 7951679518; December 19, 2000). The proposed rule, analyses concerning it, and the comments on it can be found in the Department's docket or on the Department's Dockets Management System (DMS) web site. The address for the Dockets office and the DMS web site are listed under Addresses above. This action is simply a response to an industry request for, essentially, the reopening of a comment period; the Department does not propose to take any new action through this document that would be subject to statutory or Executive Order requirements concerning the regulatory process.
Issued this 11th Day of June, 2001, at Washington DC. Kenneth C. Edgell,
Acting Director, Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy and Compliance.
[FR Doc. 0115072 Filed 61201; 10:41 am]
BILLING CODE 491062P
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
Robert C. Ashby, Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Regulation and Enforcement, 400 7th Street, SW., Room 10424, Washington DC, 20590, 2023669306 (voice), 2023669313 (fax), or bob.ashby@ost.dot.gov (email).