Judge Temporarily Bars Drug Testing at A-Plant

Employees at the San Onofre nuclear generating station won a court order Wednesday temporarily halting a drug-testing program for about 900 workers with unescorted access to areas nearest the reactor core.

Superior Court Judge Jack M. Newman issued a temporary restraining order blocking implementation of a urine-testing program adopted by the Southern California Edison Co. this month in response to increasing federal pressure to guarantee a drug-free nuclear work force.

Members of the Utility Workers Union of America, Local 246, challenged the drug-testing program as an unconstitutional invasion of employees’ privacy rights, calling it a “humiliating and embarrassing” intrusion on employees who most often have no reason to be suspected of drug use.

Union officials contend that employee drug testing should be limited to those workers for whom there is probable cause to suspect drug use. A new company policy that took effect this month requires that employees submit to drug testing with 24 hours’ notice at least once a year. But because the policy simply states that the test must be administered “within 24 hours,” it can often mean that employees have only a few moments’ notice--essentially rendering it a random testing program, union attorney Glenn Rothner said.

A number of lower-court decisions have already held that random drug testing violates employees’ privacy rights.

Edison attorney Mark Mikulka said the company carefully developed the policy to avoid random drug testing.

Ruling that there is a “reasonable probability” that the union will ultimately prevail in its challenge, Newman granted the restraining order and scheduled a full hearing on the issue for Dec. 26.