Employee Drug Testing

The Supreme Court has ruled that an employer's decision to terminate a worker who tests positive for drugs is not in violation of the public policy of the state. In Stein v. Davidson Hotel Co., 945 S.W.2d 714 (Tenn. 1997), the Supreme Court ruled that the drug and alcohol testing program of the hotel where plaintiff worked, which included pre-employment testing, reasonable suspicion testing, post-accident testing, and random testing, did not violate the Tennessee Constitution, as the right of privacy applies to government conduct, rather than the conduct of private individuals. As such, the Tennessee Constitution does not restrict the right of private sector employers to discharge at will employees who test positive on a random drug test.