I went for a very legal and very routine pre employment screening process for a large car dealership I had a job offer with pending background, credit, and drug screening. I went to the screening company the company uses and everything but the drug test went well (and not because of me).
I will keep this as short as possible, but there are a lot of details so bear with me. The first part of the screening process was submitting a sample for urinalysis which I did. After filling the cup and handing my specimen over, I informed the receptionist/collector that there is a medication I take that will make my urinalysis show positive for amphetamines. I handed her my prescription bottle, she took it, did a search in her database to verify, and then proceeds to ask me what I take it for. She was very persistent on obtaining a medical reason, even though I didn't want to divulge because it was none of her business, but after her explaining that she needs to note it in my file because I need a valid medical reason for taking it I confirmed her question of "Do you take this for _____?!" She supposedly documented all that in my file so I figured I had nothing to worry about with it, but I was still worried of a non-negative test result hindering employment. During my interview process at the screeening company (for background, credit, and accuracy of information on apllication) I also informed the interviewer without any extensive details that there is a medication I take that will show up for amphetamines to which he said "ok" and told me to make sure the receptionst/collector knew. I did so, again, before leaving just to be sure.
I did this all on Monday, March 29, and was informed by the dealership that under the worst conditions I wold hear something back by Thursday of that week. After hearing nothing that week, I called up to the dealership and spoke to the manager who interviewed me (also a good friend of mine) and asked him to look into what the status of the claim was. I spoke with him everyday that week until late Friday when he finally was given a reason on why it was taking so long: my drug test came up positive, but no information was given why as to keep with privacy laws. I tried contacting the screening company to no avail as it was too late in the day to reach them so I waited until Monday to call back.
On Monday, April 12, I called the screening company to find out the results of the drug test and what it was positive for. It took quite a bit of brow beating speaking to the receptionist/collector (same one that supposedly noted my prescription) to verify not only that the urinalysis came back positive and another 10-15 minutes to get her to confirm that it was for amphetamines and solely because of my prescription. Upon further questioning of why the test was reported to the dealership as positive and not negative because of a valid medical condition/prescription the receptionist claims that "the precription information (type and amount) was noted on the paperwork sent to the dealership as well as the medical condition that requires you to take it." Wait, do what? She continued with "I need you to fax over a copy of the prescription to us so that we can fax it to them and clear you for employment." What? So you're telling me you didn't note the prescription since you need another copy to verify? Was the most current bottle not good enough? I gave up, called my pharmacy, and had another copy faxed over to them. It took me calling the next two days, a few times per day, until they forwarded the info on to the dealership. This was late in the day Wednesday, April 14, that they confirmed they sent it via fax to the HR Director who was in charge of all this stuff. So on Thursday, April 15, I call the HR Director and ask her if I was cleared yet. She tells me no because the prescription label the pharmacy sent was filled after the date of the test (I had refilled my prescription since the test) so they needed a copy of the one prior to the test. I told her no problem and asked if it was noted on there that I take this prescription to which she said no. I had to go back to the pharmacy, pick up a copy of the prior prescription, and scan-to-email to the HR Director which was completed by 3:30pm on that day. Knowing that I was cleared, I went to the dealership before noon on Friday, April 16, and spoke with the manager I knew that was trying to hire me. They had hired someone late on Thursday, April 15, because they needed someone and my getting cleared for employment had taken too long. The GM decided to hire another applicant because their need outweighed the ability to wait (which was 100% understandable after three weeks of this mess).
To top it off, after going through all this crap with the screening company, I sent the following email anonymously questioning their policies to get a better understanding of how it worked and to know whether I should be concerned with seeking legal help or not:
Their response (edited for privacy reasons):
It's funny too how they underline and/or embolden the places where they claim to have no part in checking, but indicate that that is the reasons why I was not eligible for the job. My credit is horrible right now because I have been without a job and no income at all for the last three months now. The dealership has confirmed on many occasions that it is solely the drug test that hindered my employment and since I cleared what the screening company screwed up I am eligible for employment when an opening comes up.
I will keep this as short as possible, but there are a lot of details so bear with me. The first part of the screening process was submitting a sample for urinalysis which I did. After filling the cup and handing my specimen over, I informed the receptionist/collector that there is a medication I take that will make my urinalysis show positive for amphetamines. I handed her my prescription bottle, she took it, did a search in her database to verify, and then proceeds to ask me what I take it for. She was very persistent on obtaining a medical reason, even though I didn't want to divulge because it was none of her business, but after her explaining that she needs to note it in my file because I need a valid medical reason for taking it I confirmed her question of "Do you take this for _____?!" She supposedly documented all that in my file so I figured I had nothing to worry about with it, but I was still worried of a non-negative test result hindering employment. During my interview process at the screeening company (for background, credit, and accuracy of information on apllication) I also informed the interviewer without any extensive details that there is a medication I take that will show up for amphetamines to which he said "ok" and told me to make sure the receptionst/collector knew. I did so, again, before leaving just to be sure.
I did this all on Monday, March 29, and was informed by the dealership that under the worst conditions I wold hear something back by Thursday of that week. After hearing nothing that week, I called up to the dealership and spoke to the manager who interviewed me (also a good friend of mine) and asked him to look into what the status of the claim was. I spoke with him everyday that week until late Friday when he finally was given a reason on why it was taking so long: my drug test came up positive, but no information was given why as to keep with privacy laws. I tried contacting the screening company to no avail as it was too late in the day to reach them so I waited until Monday to call back.
On Monday, April 12, I called the screening company to find out the results of the drug test and what it was positive for. It took quite a bit of brow beating speaking to the receptionist/collector (same one that supposedly noted my prescription) to verify not only that the urinalysis came back positive and another 10-15 minutes to get her to confirm that it was for amphetamines and solely because of my prescription. Upon further questioning of why the test was reported to the dealership as positive and not negative because of a valid medical condition/prescription the receptionist claims that "the precription information (type and amount) was noted on the paperwork sent to the dealership as well as the medical condition that requires you to take it." Wait, do what? She continued with "I need you to fax over a copy of the prescription to us so that we can fax it to them and clear you for employment." What? So you're telling me you didn't note the prescription since you need another copy to verify? Was the most current bottle not good enough? I gave up, called my pharmacy, and had another copy faxed over to them. It took me calling the next two days, a few times per day, until they forwarded the info on to the dealership. This was late in the day Wednesday, April 14, that they confirmed they sent it via fax to the HR Director who was in charge of all this stuff. So on Thursday, April 15, I call the HR Director and ask her if I was cleared yet. She tells me no because the prescription label the pharmacy sent was filled after the date of the test (I had refilled my prescription since the test) so they needed a copy of the one prior to the test. I told her no problem and asked if it was noted on there that I take this prescription to which she said no. I had to go back to the pharmacy, pick up a copy of the prior prescription, and scan-to-email to the HR Director which was completed by 3:30pm on that day. Knowing that I was cleared, I went to the dealership before noon on Friday, April 16, and spoke with the manager I knew that was trying to hire me. They had hired someone late on Thursday, April 15, because they needed someone and my getting cleared for employment had taken too long. The GM decided to hire another applicant because their need outweighed the ability to wait (which was 100% understandable after three weeks of this mess).
To top it off, after going through all this crap with the screening company, I sent the following email anonymously questioning their policies to get a better understanding of how it worked and to know whether I should be concerned with seeking legal help or not:
Their response (edited for privacy reasons):
It's funny too how they underline and/or embolden the places where they claim to have no part in checking, but indicate that that is the reasons why I was not eligible for the job. My credit is horrible right now because I have been without a job and no income at all for the last three months now. The dealership has confirmed on many occasions that it is solely the drug test that hindered my employment and since I cleared what the screening company screwed up I am eligible for employment when an opening comes up.
