Worker Sues 3M Over Random Tests for Drug Use

In a case that is expected to be widely watched as a legal test for mandatory drug screening of employees, a worker at the 3M plant in Camarillo, suspended after he refused a company drug test, has filed suit to stop the firm’s far-reaching screening program.

The suit, brought by Michael A. Mora, 31, of Ventura, seeks to end Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing’s 8-month-old program on grounds that its random mandatory testing provisions violate a state constitutional right to privacy.

It is the first suit brought against the company in connection with its drug-screening program and the first such suit in California to test a 1974 amendment to the state Constitution that declares privacy an inalienable right, Richard A. Weinstock, Mora’s attorney, said Thursday.

The suit, filed Monday in Ventura County Superior Court, could drastically change the way many firms in the state conduct their anti-drug programs, Weinstock said.

Other suits brought in the rapidly growing area of mandatory drug testing have been filed on grounds that they violate federal protections against unreasonable search and seizure, Weinstock said.

All of the about 1,000 3M employees in Camarillo, including management, are subject to at least one random drug test a year under the ambitious anti-drug program that began Feb. 10. Drug testing for all job applicants at the 40-acre facility began in January.

A company computer randomly selects the names of 25 employees each week for testing, 3M spokeswoman Kitty Dill said. Employees are tested for traces of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol, she said.

Employees who test positive for drugs or alcohol are offered counseling and referral to a rehabilitation program. Those who test positive a second time may be fired.

A hearing on Mora’s class-action suit, brought on behalf all employees at the Camarillo plant, is set for Nov. 10.

The suit contends that the state Constitution protects citizens from the collection and misuse of personal information by either private employers or government, Weinstock said.

Weinstock contended that the company does not have the right to require drug tests if employees do not exhibit any drug- or alcohol-related problems on the job.

“Basically, government or an employer can’t delve into your private life,” Weinstock said. “Otherwise, you could have someone, say, watching your dinner table and telling you to stop eating so many fats because you’re going to get a heart attack and die on the job.”

Besides, employees are not given an opportunity to contest the results of the drug tests under the 3M program, Weinstock said. “These tests can be botched and the labs can have untrained people interpreting the results,” he said.

A company spokeswoman said Thursday that the firm has not been served with the suit. But the company released a statement that said, in part, “We believe that our program has contributed significantly to the safety of all of us here at the plant, and we plan to defend the program.”

Should the case be won and eventually upheld on appeal, Weinstock said, employees who have been terminated from other firms because of mandatory random drug testing may begin seeking damage awards for wrongful termination.

Mora, a seven-year employee who seals cartons at the plant, was suspended for two weeks without pay on June 26 for refusing a urine test under the company testing program, Weinstock said. Mora went to his own physician for a urinalysis, which showed no traces of drug use, he said.

Mora, who still works at the plant and declined to be interviewed, is not seeking any damages in the suit but is asking to be reimbursed for attorney fees, Weinstock said.

Weinstock was one of three lawyers who met with 3M employees when the program began last winter and advised them that the drug-testing plan violated several state and federal civil-rights provisions.

The Camarillo facility produces computer tapes, diskettes and other magnetic tape products, and is one of Ventura County’s largest employers. It is the only one of 140 3M plants worldwide to have a mandatory drug testing program, 3M spokeswoman Dill said.

She said the Camarillo program was begun at the request of employees concerned about drug abuse and plant safety.