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KCAO Maintains a Drug-Free Workplace

Drug and Alcohol Abuse KCAO is concerned about the use of alcohol, illegal drugs, or controlled substances as it affects the workplace. Use of these substances, whether on or off the job can detract from an employee’s work performance, efficiency, safety, and health, and therefore seriously impair the employee’s value to KCAO. In addition, the use or possession of these substances on the job constitutes a potential danger to the welfare and safety of other employees and exposes the agency to the risks of property loss or damage, or injury to other persons.

Furthermore, the use of prescription drugs and/or over-the-counter drugs also may affect an employee’s job performance and may seriously impair the employee’s value to the agency.

The following rules and standards of conduct apply to all employees either on agency property or during the workday (including meals and rest periods). Behavior that violates agency policy includes:

• Possession or use of an illegal or controlled substance, or being under the influence of an illegal or controlled substance while on the job;

• Driving a KCAO vehicle while under the influence of alcohol or a drug prescribed or otherwise that impairs driving; and

• Distribution, sale, or purchase of an illegal or controlled substance while on the job.

Violation of these rules and standards of conduct will not be tolerated. KCAO may also bring the matter to the attention of appropriate law enforcement authorities.

In order to enforce this policy, KCAO reserves the right to conduct searches of agency property or employees and/or their personal property, and to implement other measures necessary to deter and detect abuse of this policy.

An employee’s conviction on a charge of illegal sale or possession of any controlled substance while off agency property will not be tolerated because such conduct, even though off duty, reflects adversely on KCAO. In addition, KCAO must keep people who sell or possess controlled substances off Company premises in order to keep the controlled substances themselves off the premises.

An employee convicted of violating a criminal drug statute must inform the Agency of such conviction (including pleas of guilty or nolo contendre) within five days of the conviction’s occurrence. Failure to inform the Agency will result in severe disciplinary action, up to and including termination for the first offense.

Any employee who is using prescription or over-the-counter drugs that may impair the employee’s ability to safely perform the job, or affect the safety or well-being of others, must notify a supervisor of such use immediately before starting or resuming work. KCAO will encourage and reasonably accommodate employees with alcohol or drug dependencies to seek treatment and/or rehabilitation. Employees desiring such assistance should request a treatment or rehabilitation leave. KCAO is not obligated, however, to continue to employ any person whose performance of essential job duties is impaired because of drug or alcohol use, nor is the KCAO obligated to re-employ any person who has participated in treatment and/or rehabilitation if that person’s job performance remains impaired as a result of dependency. Additionally, employees who are given the opportunity to seek treatment and/or rehabilitation, but fail to successfully overcome their dependency or problem, will not automatically be given a second opportunity to seek treatment and/or rehabilitation. This policy on treatment and rehabilitation is not intended to affect KCAO’s treatment of employees who violate the regulations described previously. Rather, rehabilitation is an option for an employee who acknowledges a chemical dependency and voluntarily seeks treatment to end that dependency.

KCAO contracts with Halcyon Behavioral (HalcyonBehavioral.com) to provide Employee Assistance Program services and to support our Drug-Free Workplace policy. Services are confidential and available free of charge to all KCAO employees.

Post Offer Testing

New employees may be given a drug abuse test as a condition of employment, prior to starting work. The Agency will receive all results from the drug test. All newly hired employees testing positive will be terminated immediately. Newly hired employees who fail the post offer drug test will not be eligible for re-application for a period of one (1) year.

Reasonable Suspicion Drug and Alcohol Testing

“Reasonable Suspicion” is suspicion based on specific, contemporaneous, and articulable observations of behavior, appearance, odors, and/or speech that suggests drug or alcohol use, or where other factors suggest a violation of the Agency’s substance abuse prevention policy. The standard is something less than probable cause, but something more than mere suspicion. It is suspicion that requires further investigation and which has some factual foundation in the surrounding circumstances observed in light of the observer’s knowledge. Examples include, but are not limited to alcohol on the breath, lapses in performance, inability to appropriately respond to questions, and physical symptoms of alcohol and/or drug influence. Refusal to submit to screening as ordered may result in immediate termination.

Post-Accident Testing

Drug and/or alcohol screening will be required following a work-related accident or any violation of safety precautions or standards, if there is "reasonable suspicion" (as defined above) of a drug and/or alcohol causal connection, whether or not an injury resulted from the accident or violation. Refusal to submit to screening may result in immediate termination.