RTD Maintenance Workers, Mechanics Ask Court to Block Drug Test Program
Mechanics and maintenance workers for the Southern California Rapid Transit District went to court Friday seeking to block a tough new anti-drug program that will allow supervisors to order drug tests for employees who demonstrate any kind of aberrant behavior.
In a hearing before Superior Court Judge Robert Weil, attorneys for the 1,750-member Amalgamated Transit Union argued that the policy, scheduled to take effect Monday, is far broader than the union’s employment contract permits and a violation of employees’ constitutional rights.
Weil declined to issue a temporary restraining order blocking implementation of the policy but scheduled a Jan. 12 hearing for a full review.
The policy, adopted by the RTD board in August in an effort to bolster public confidence in the transit system, requires drug testing after a bus accident or in cases where an employee is habitually late, absent or involved in a physical altercation.
In addition, supervisors may at their own discretion require a urine sample from an employee who becomes involved in an argument or shows symptoms of any kind of “aberrant behavior.â€
RTD attorney Richard Katzman argued that many of the policy’s provisions have been in effect since the district adopted its first drug-testing policy in August, 1985.
But San Francisco attorney Joseph Freitas Jr., representing the union, said there has been an informal agreement not to impose the most controversial provisions of the policy until the union has had a chance to take its grievance over the policy to an arbitrator.
Bus drivers have not objected to the new policy. “Our position is, drug testing’s OK so long as it’s for reasonable cause,†said Larry Drasin, attorney for the drivers’ union.
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