UTU Bus News Digest - December, 1999

UTU Bus Department News Digest
Information of interest to transportation employees December, 1999

Iowa Supreme Court finds Deere violated drug testing restrictions

An employee fired for testing positive for marijuana and cocaine use is nevertheless entitled to unemployment compensation because equipment manufacturer Deere & Co. violated state law restrictions on drug testing, the Iowa Supreme Court rules. The supreme court reverses the Iowa Employment Appeal Board's decision, affirmed by a county district court, to deny benefits to Jack Eaton. A five-judge panel unanimously concludes that an illegal drug test cannot support a finding of misconduct that would render an employee ineligible for unemployment benefits.

The high court rules that Deere violated the pre-1998 version of Iowa's drug testing law by requiring Eaton to sign a "last chance" agreement calling for submission to random drug testing as a condition of employment and also violated the law by asking him to undergo testing when the company did not have probable cause to believe that Eaton was impaired on the job. "It would be contrary to the spirit of chapter 730 to allow an employer to benefit from an authorized drug test by relying on it as a basis to disqualify an employee from unemployment compensation benefits," Justice Ternus writes.