3M Plant to Halt Random Drug Testing

Officials at a 3M plant that employs 1,000 workers in Camarillo have agreed to permanently abandon a sweeping random drug testing program that was challenged in court by employees.

The firm’s decision last week to forgo taking the case to trial came in the wake of a preliminary injunction, issued Jan. 6 by Ventura Superior Court Judge Allan L. Steele, ordering the company to halt the program until further review by the court. Steele signed a permanent injunction Thursday.

The suit against 3M was filed by Michael A. Mora, 31, of Oxnard, who was suspended from his job at the plant last June after refusing to take a company drug test. Mora’s suit argued the testing contradicts a right-to-privacy amendment to the state Constitution.

“We accomplished what we set out to do and that was to stop the drug tests,” Mora said Friday. “I felt personally violated by them. It’s a degrading process.”

Barbara Perkins, a 3M spokeswoman in St. Paul, Minn., where the company is based, said 3M’s drug testing program was developed in response to concerns expressed by about 30 employees who said many of their co-workers were under the influence of drugs or alcohol while on the job.

All of the employees at the 3M plant in Camarillo, including management, were subject to at least one random drug test a year. When the program was in effect, a company computer randomly selected the names of 25 employees each week for testing. They were tested for traces of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, barbiturates and alcohol.

No one was fired as a result of the tests, Perkins said, although some were referred to a company drug rehabilitation program. More than 700 had been tested in the 11 months that the program was in operation. Of those, 32 tested positive for marijuana, cocaine or alcohol.

The injunction allows 3M to continue screening prospective employees for drug use. In addition, it will test workers suspected of substance abuse.

“I think at this point, those programs will be sufficient to maintain a safe working environment,” Perkins said.

While the suit was widely watched as a legal test for mandatory drug screening, the out-of-court settlement reduces the case’s potential impact.

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