Fla. Stat. § 112.0455
(2) PURPOSE.--This section is intended to:
(3) FINDINGS.--The Legislature finds that:
(5) DEFINITIONS.--Except where the context otherwise requires, as used in this act:
(j) "Reasonable suspicion drug testing" means drug testing based on a belief that an employee is using or has used drugs in violation of the employer's policy drawn from specific objective and articulable facts and reasonable inferences drawn from those facts in light of experience. Reasonable suspicion drug testing shall not be required except upon the recommendation of a supervisor who is at least one level of supervision higher than the immediate supervisor of the employee in question. Among other things, such facts and inferences may be based upon:
1. Observable phenomena while at work, such as direct observation of drug use or of the physical symptoms or manifestations of being under the influence of a drug.
2. Abnormal conduct or erratic behavior while at work or a significant deterioration in work performance.
3. A report of drug use, provided by a reliable and credible source, which has been independently corroborated.
4. Evidence that an individual has tampered with a drug test during employment with the current employer.
5. Information that an employee has caused, or contributed to, an accident while at work.
6. Evidence that an employee has used, possessed, sold, solicited, or transferred drugs while working or while on the employer's premises or while operating the employer's vehicle, machinery, or equipment.
(6) NOTICE TO EMPLOYEES.--
(b) Prior to testing, all employees and job applicants for employment shall be given a written policy statement from the employer which contains:
1. A general statement of the employer's policy on employee drug use, which shall identify:
a. The types of testing an employee or job applicant may be required to submit to, including reasonable suspicion or other basis; and
b. The actions the employer may take against an employee or job applicant on the basis of a positive confirmed drug test result.
2. A statement advising the employee or job applicant of the existence of this section.
3. A general statement concerning confidentiality.
4. Procedures for employees and job applicants to confidentially report the use of prescription or nonprescription medications both before and after being tested. Additionally, employees and job applicants shall receive notice of the most common medications by brand name or common name, as applicable, as well as by chemical name, which may alter or affect a drug test. A list of such medications shall be developed by the Agency for Health Care Administration.
5. The consequences of refusing to submit to a drug test.
6. Names, addresses, and telephone numbers of employee assistance programs and local alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs.
7. A statement that an employee or job applicant who receives a positive confirmed drug test result may contest or explain the result to the employer within 5 working days after written notification of the positive test result. If an employee or job applicant's explanation or challenge is unsatisfactory to the employer, the person may contest the drug test result as provided by subsections (14) and (15).
8. A statement informing the employee or job applicant of his or her responsibility to notify the laboratory of any administrative or civil actions brought pursuant to this section.
9. A list of all drugs for which the employer will test, described by brand names or common names, as applicable, as well as by chemical names.
10. A statement regarding any applicable collective bargaining agreement or contract and the right to appeal to the Public Employees Relations Commission.
11. A statement notifying employees and job applicants of their right to consult the testing laboratory for technical information regarding prescription and nonprescription medication.
(7) TYPES OF TESTING.--An employer is authorized, but not required, to conduct the following types of drug tests:
(8) PROCEDURES AND EMPLOYEE PROTECTION.--All specimen collection and testing for drugs under this section shall be performed in accordance with the following procedures:
(b) Specimen collection shall be documented, and the documentation procedures shall include:
1. Labeling of specimen containers so as to reasonably preclude the likelihood of erroneous identification of test results.
2. A form for the employee or job applicant to provide any information he or she considers relevant to the test, including identification of currently or recently used prescription or nonprescription medication, or other relevant medical information. Such form shall provide notice of the most common medications by brand name or common name, as applicable, as well as by chemical name, which may alter or affect a drug test. The providing of information shall not preclude the administration of the drug test, but shall be taken into account in interpreting any positive confirmed results.
(e) A specimen for a drug test may be taken or collected by any of the following persons:
1. A physician, a physician's assistant, a registered professional nurse, a licensed practical nurse, a nurse practitioner, or a certified paramedic who is present at the scene of an accident for the purpose of rendering emergency medical service or treatment.
2. A qualified person employed by a licensed laboratory.
(n) In addition to the limitation under paragraph (m):
1. Except as provided in subparagraph 3., no employer may discharge, discipline, or discriminate against an employee on the sole basis of the employee's first positive confirmed drug test, unless the employer has first given the employee an opportunity to participate in, at the employee's own expense or pursuant to coverage under a health insurance plan, an employee assistance program or an alcohol and drug rehabilitation program, and:
a. The employee has either refused to participate in the employee assistance program or the alcohol and drug rehabilitation program or has failed to successfully complete such program, as evidenced by withdrawal from the program before its completion or a report from the program indicating unsatisfactory compliance, or by a positive test result on a confirmation test after completion of the program; or
b. The employee has failed or refused to sign a written consent form allowing the employer to obtain information regarding the progress and successful completion of an employee assistance program or an alcohol and drug rehabilitation program.
2. An employee in a safety-sensitive position shall be placed by the employer in a non-safety-sensitive position, or if such position is unavailable, on leave status while participating in an employee assistance program or an alcohol and drug rehabilitation program. If placed on leave status without pay, the employee shall be permitted to use any accumulated leave credits prior to being placed on leave without pay.
3. A special risk employee may be discharged or disciplined for the first positive confirmed drug test result when illicit drugs, pursuant to s. 893.13, are confirmed. No special risk employee shall be permitted to continue work in a safety-sensitive position, but may be placed either in a non-safety-sensitive position or on leave status while participating in an employee assistance program or an alcohol and drug rehabilitation program.
(9) CONFIRMATION TESTING.--
(10) EMPLOYER PROTECTION.--
(11) CONFIDENTIALITY.--
(b) Employers, laboratories, employee assistance programs, drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs, and their agents may not release any information concerning drug test results obtained pursuant to this section without a written consent form signed voluntarily by the person tested, except where such release is compelled by a hearing officer or a court of competent jurisdiction pursuant to an appeal taken under this section, or where deemed appropriate by a professional or occupational licensing board in a related disciplinary proceeding. The consent form must contain, at a minimum:
1. The name of the person who is authorized to obtain the information.
2. The purpose of the disclosure.
3. The precise information to be disclosed.
4. The duration of the consent.
5. The signature of the person authorizing release of the information.
(12) DRUG-TESTING STANDARDS; LABORATORIES.--
(b) A laboratory may analyze initial or confirmation drug specimens only if:
1. The laboratory is licensed and approved by the Agency for Health Care Administration using criteria established by the United States Department of Health and Human Services as general guidelines for modeling the state drug testing program and in accordance with part II of chapter 408. Each applicant for licensure and licensee must comply with all requirements of part II of chapter 408.
2. The laboratory has written procedures to ensure chain of custody.
3. The laboratory follows proper quality control procedures, including, but not limited to:
a. The use of internal quality controls including the use of samples of known concentrations which are used to check the performance and calibration of testing equipment, and periodic use of blind samples for overall accuracy.
b. An internal review and certification process for drug test results, conducted by a person qualified to perform that function in the testing laboratory.
c. Security measures implemented by the testing laboratory to preclude adulteration of specimens and drug test results.
d. Other necessary and proper actions taken to ensure reliable and accurate drug test results.
(c) A laboratory shall disclose to the employer a written test result report within 7 working days after receipt of the sample. All laboratory reports of a drug test result shall, at a minimum, state:
1. The name and address of the laboratory which performed the test and the positive identification of the person tested.
2. Positive results on confirmation tests only, or negative results, as applicable.
3. A list of the drugs for which the drug analyses were conducted.
4. The type of tests conducted for both initial and confirmation tests and the minimum cutoff levels of the tests.
5. Any correlation between medication reported by the employee or job applicant pursuant to subparagraph (8)(b)2. and a positive confirmed drug test result. No report shall disclose the presence or absence of any drug other than a specific drug and its metabolites listed pursuant to this section.
(13) RULES.--
(a) The Agency for Health Care Administration may adopt additional rules to support this law and part II of chapter 408, using criteria established by the United States Department of Health and Human Services as general guidelines for modeling drug-free workplace laboratories, concerning, but not limited to:
1. Standards for drug-testing laboratory licensing and denial, suspension, and revocation of a license.
2. Urine, hair, blood, and other body specimens and minimum specimen amounts which are appropriate for drug testing, not inconsistent with other provisions established by law.
3. Methods of analysis and procedures to ensure reliable drug-testing results, including standards for initial tests and confirmation tests, not inconsistent with other provisions established by law.
4. Minimum cutoff detection levels for drugs or their metabolites for the purposes of determining a positive test result, not inconsistent with other provisions established by law.
5. Chain-of-custody procedures to ensure proper identification, labeling, and handling of specimens being tested, not inconsistent with other provisions established by law.
6. Retention, storage, and transportation procedures to ensure reliable results on confirmation tests and retests.
7. A list of the most common medications by brand name or common name, as applicable, as well as by chemical name, which may alter or affect a drug test.
(b) The following standards and procedures are established related to hair testing:
(III) Morphine;
d. Phencyclidine: 3 ng/10 mg of hair; and
e. Amphetamines: 5 ng/10 mg of hair. For the purpose of this section, amphetamines include the following:
(II) Methamphetamine;
2. Hair cutoff levels for drug confirmation testing.--
a. All specimens identified as positive on the initial test must be confirmed using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (MS/MS) at the following cutoff levels for these drugs on their metabolites. All confirmations must be by quantitative analysis.
(B) Methamphetamines.
(X) The collection site personnel shall complete the chain-of-custody form.
g. Collection control.--To the maximum extent possible, collection site personnel shall keep the individual's specimen container within sight both before and after collection. After the specimen is collected, it must be properly sealed and labeled. An approved chain-of-custody form must be used for maintaining control and accountability of each specimen from the point of collection to final disposition of the specimen. The date and purpose must be documented on an approved chain-of-custody form each time a specimen is handled or transferred, and every individual in the chain must be identified. Every effort must be made to minimize the number of persons handling specimens.
h. Transportation to the testing facility.--Collection site personnel shall arrange to transport the collected specimens to the drug-testing facility. The specimens shall be placed in containers which shall be securely sealed to eliminate the possibility of undetected tampering. The collection site personnel shall ensure that the chain-of-custody documentation is sealed separately from the specimen and placed inside the container sealed for transfer to the drug-testing facility.
4. Quality assurance and quality control.--
a. Quality assurance.--Testing facilities shall have a quality assurance program which encompasses all aspects of the testing process, including, but not limited to, specimen acquisition, chain of custody, security and reporting of results, initial and confirmatory testing, and validation of analytical procedures. Quality assurance procedures shall be designed, implemented, and reviewed to monitor the conduct of each step of the process of testing for drugs.
b. Quality control.--
(II) In addition, with each batch of samples, a sufficient number of standards shall be included to ensure and document the linearity of the assay method over time in the concentration area of the cutoff. After acceptable values are obtained for the known standards, those values must be used to calculate sample data. Implementation of procedures to ensure that carryover does not contaminate the testing of an individual's specimen must be documented. A minimum of 5 percent of all test samples must be quality control specimens. The testing facility's quality control samples, prepared from fortified hair samples of determined concentration, must be included in the run and must appear as normal samples to drug-screen testing facility analysis. One percent of each run, with a minimum of at least one sample, must be the testing facility's own quality control samples.
5.a. Proficiency testing.--
(V) The drug-testing facility may not engage in discussions or communications concerning proficiency-testing results with other drug-testing facilities, nor may they send proficiency-testing samples or portions of the samples to another drug-testing facility for analysis.
b. Satisfactory performance.--
(II) Failure to participate in a proficiency-testing event shall result in a score of 0 percent for that testing event.
c. Unsuccessful performance.--Failure to achieve satisfactory performance in two consecutive testing events, or two out of three consecutive testing events, is determined to be unsuccessful performance.
b. All hair specimens undergoing confirmation must be decontaminated using a wash procedure which has been published in the peer-reviewed literature which, as a minimum, has an initial 15-minute organic solvent wash followed by multiple (minimum of three) 30-minute aqueous washes.
c. After hair is washed, the drug entrapped in the hair is released either by digestion (chemical or enzymatic) or by multiple solvent extractions. The resulting digest or pooled solvent extracts are then screened and confirmed by approved methods.
d. All confirmation analysis methods must eliminate the melanin fraction of the hair before analysis. If a nondigestion method is used, the laboratory must present published data in the peer-reviewed literature from a large population study which indicates that the method of extraction does not possess a statistically significant hair-color bias.
e. Additional hair samples may be collected to reconfirm the initial report. The recollected sample shall be retested as specified; however, the confirmation analysis must be performed even if the screening test is negative. A second positive report must be made if the drug concentration in the digest by confirmation methods exceeds the limit of quantitation of the testing laboratory's method. A second test must be offered to anyone disputing a positive hair test result.
3. Hair specimen collection procedures.--
a. Designation of collection site.--Each drug-testing program shall have one or more designated collection sites which have all necessary personnel, materials, equipment, facilities, and supervision to provide for the collection, security, temporary storage, and shipping or transportation of hair specimens to a licensed drug-testing facility.
b. Security.--While security is important with any collection, in the case of hair, only the temporary storage area in the designated collection site needs to be secure.
c. Chain of custody.--Chain-of-custody standardized forms shall be properly executed by authorized collection site personnel upon receipt of specimens. Handling and transportation of hair specimens from one authorized individual or place to another shall always be accomplished through chain-of-custody procedures. Every effort shall be made to minimize the number of persons handling specimens.
d. Access to authorized personnel only.--The hair collection site need be off limits to unauthorized personnel only during the actual collection of specimens.
e. Privacy.--Procedures for collecting hair should be performed on one individual at a time to prevent substitutions or interference with the collection of reliable samples. Procedures must ensure that the hair collection does not infringe on the individual's privacy.
f. Integrity and identity of specimen.--Precautions must be taken to ensure that the root end of a hair specimen is indicated for the laboratory which performs the testing. The maximum length of hair that shall be tested is 3.9 cm distal from the head, which on average represents a 3-month time window. The following minimum precautions must be taken when collecting a hair specimen to ensure that specimens are obtained and correctly identified:
1. Hair cutoff levels for initial drug-screening tests.--The following initial cutoff levels must be used when screening hair specimens to determine whether they are negative for these drugs or their metabolites:
a. Marijuana: 10 pg/10 mg of hair;
b. Cocaine: 5 ng/10 mg of hair; and
c. Opiate/synthetic narcotics and metabolites: 5 ng/10 mg of hair. For the purpose of this section, opiate and metabolites include the following:
(14) DISCIPLINE REMEDIES.--
(e) Upon resolving an appeal filed pursuant to paragraph (c), and finding a violation of this section, the commission may order the following relief:
1. Rescind the disciplinary action, expunge related records from the personnel file of the employee or job applicant and reinstate the employee.
2. Order compliance with paragraph (10)(g).
3. Award back pay and benefits.
4. Award the prevailing employee or job applicant the necessary costs of the appeal, reasonable attorney's fees, and expert witness fees.
(15) NONDISCIPLINE REMEDIES.--
(a) Any person alleging a violation of the provisions of this section, that is not remediable by the commission or an arbitrator pursuant to subsection (14), must institute a civil action for injunctive relief or damages, or both, in a court of competent jurisdiction within 180 days of the alleged violation, or be barred from obtaining the following relief. Relief is limited to:
1. An order restraining the continued violation of this section.
2. An award of the costs of litigation, expert witness fees, reasonable attorney's fees, and noneconomic damages provided that damages shall be limited to the recovery of damages directly resulting from injury or loss caused by each violation of this section.
(16) FEDERAL COMPLIANCE.--The drug-testing procedures provided in this section do not apply where the specific work performed requires employees or job applicants to be subject to drug testing pursuant to:
History.--s. 1, ch. 89-173; s. 1, ch. 90-238; s. 25, ch. 90-360; s. 1, ch. 91-201; s. 6, ch. 91-279; s. 4, ch. 91-429; s. 40, ch. 92-279; s. 55, ch. 92-326; s. 7, ch. 93-129; s. 2, ch. 95-119; s. 680, ch. 95-147; s. 1, ch. 96-289; s. 32, ch. 96-406; s. 7, ch. 98-136; ss. 5, 71, ch. 98-171; s. 53, ch. 2000-349; s. 25, ch. 2001-53; s. 2, ch. 2001-67; s. 148, ch. 2001-277; s. 37, ch. 2004-267; s. 11, ch. 2006-1; s. 7, ch. 2007-217; s. 1, ch. 2007-230.