Reso 2018-2773 - Laserfiche WebLink

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DRUG-FREE WORKPLACE PROGRAM I. Purpose As a part of its commitment to safeguard the health of its employees, to provide a safe place for its employees to work, and to promote a drug-free working environment, the City of Sunny Isles Beach, Florida (City) has established this program relating to the use or abuse of alcohol and drugs by its employees. This program is intended to conform to the requirements of the Drug- Free Workplace Program under Florida's Workers' Compensation Law, and rules promulgated pursuant thereto. Substance abuse, while at work or otherwise, seriously endangers the safety of employees, as well as the general public, and creates a variety of workplace problems including increased injuries on the job, increased absenteeism, increased health care and benefit costs, increased theft, decreased morale, decreased productivity, and a decline in the quality of products and services provided. This program is established in part to detect users and remove abusers of drugs and alcohol from the workplace, to prevent the use and/or presence of these substances in the workplace, and to assist employees in overcoming any dependence on drugs and/or alcohol in accordance with the following guidelines. Florida Statutes provide in part that an employee who is injured in the course and scope of his employment and tests positive on a drug or alcohol test may be terminated and shall forfeit his eligibility for medical and indemnity benefits under Florida's Workers' Compensation Law. Refusal to take a drug (urine) or alcohol (blood) test will result in the employee forfeiting his eligibility for medical and indemnity benefits under Florida's Workers' Compensation Law and the employee being subject to dismissal. The City group medical plan excludes benefits for job related injuries. Therefore, if Worker's Compensation benefits are forfeited pursuant to the drug-free workplace program, the employee injured on the job will be without any City provided medical benefits. Certain components of this program involve utilization of additional techniques and procedures. These additional techniques and procedures as well as the determination of the employee groups who will be covered by such, are both justified by, and based upon, federal and state statutes, case law, and regulatory findings related to various public sector and private sector employees working in safety-sensitive positions throughout inter- and intrastate commerce. At such time as the regulations implemented pursuant to the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act of 1991 or other regulatory requirements become applicable to City employees, this program will be altered as and if necessary to conform to the specific requirements of the final regulations. Until such time, any additional techniques and procedures shall utilize mechanisms already in use and/or proposed for use by state or federal law and regulation. As determined by management, based upon additional information or experience, such additional techniques and procedures may be unilaterally, and without notice, altered, or eliminated from the remainder of this program, and shall not impact this program's continuing compliance with § 440.101-.102, Fla. Stat. (1993). To the extent that § 440.101-.102, or the implementing rules issued by the Department of Labor and Employment Security (38F-9, F.A.C.) or those issued by the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (10E-18, F.A.C.) are amended, or other statutes and rules requiring drug testing are determined to be applicable to City employees, the City's program will be amended to the extent required by such, without the necessity of further general notice. The City's Drug-Free Workplace Program has been prepared so as not to conflict with public policy and, further, not to be discriminatory or abusive. A drug-free workplace should be the goal of every employer in America. Drug and alcohol testing is only one of the several steps (Reso)Sib Drug-Free Workplace Program-Rev 01182018 Page 4 of 41 1/18/2018