Generic Employment Law Question

[ROID WARRIOR]

Syphonfilter:

You know as well as I that if you apply to USIS or any other position of public trust there will be a full and complete BI done on you, just as you'd be doing on potential candidates. They're not only going to talk with your prior employers, one of the specific questions involves alcohol and illegal drug use. They'll also request and copy your employment file. Even though you resigned, there must be a record in your file of those positive test findings. You needed to challenge those test results in a timely manner, and exhaust all administrative remedies. There isn't going to be a defamation action unless you can prove that the prior employer knew that the drug test was a false positive. Otherwise, there's no action for telling the truth. You tested positive and didn't challenge the results, but resigned. That's how USIS, or whoever, is going to see it, and you can't force them to give you the job.

RW

 

[Syphonfilter]

Roid Warrior

I was aware that a full investigation would have been performed, I had no doubt about that. I chose to take a different route from what I had been doing and that was rather than being up front and honest about what happened (which I had been doing) I chose to leave that information out. I had already spoken to the Human Resources department in regards to what they could say and all she said was that they would only say when I had worked there and when I left and what my salary was. She advised that noone is able to look into my medical file. I have looked at my personnel file several times and nothing was mentioned within it concerning what happpened.

I just thought and I guess I was wrong, that if you resigned from an employer, no matter what led to that resignation, that all the former employer could say was that you worked from this date to this date, that you showed up on time, or did or didn't call in sick alot, and earned this much in salary. I thought there was some type of privacy involved in resignations as opposed to terminations. I fought it as much as I could while there, within my power, without legal representation, but obviously not enough............

If they can keep telling this to anyone who calls, then no freakin job is ever gonna be mine........therein lies my frustration.

 

[ROID WARRIOR]

Do they perform a pre-emloyment poly? I think I read elsewhere on the board that you have had no problem passing them in the past. I think the poly is bullshit, but these agencies place great stock in them.

The government contradicts itself on the poly, they use it to disquaify candidates, yet when one wants to use a passing test to exonerate themselves, they refuse to accept it and argue against its admissibility because it is unreliable. U.S. v. Scheffer 523 U.S. 303 is the best example. The same federal government that uses the poly to screen applicants for the Secret Service or CIA (Aldrich Ames was polygraphed twice per year, for nine years and passed, even though he was lying), argued that the reuslts should be inadmissible in a trial pursuant to the UCMJ. Scheffer involved a service member, in a sitaution not unlike Syphonfilter's, was found positive for meth in the whiz quiz, yet passed the poly. The service member argued that the poly should be admissible. Ironically, the government, while conducting polygraph exam's across the street to screen FBI applicants, argued to the Supreme Court that because it is unscientific and unreliable, it should be per se inadmissible.

Unfortunately, The SCT, with J. Thomas writng the opinion for the majority agreed with the government and held the poly per se inadmisssible under the UCMJ. In so writing, Thomas stated that there is no evidence that the poly is reliable.

However, knowing that it is unreliable, the government has no problem disqualifying otherwise qualified candidates and destroying dreams and careers.

RW

 

[liftshard]

If the positive test result is in an official employment record which can be disclosed, it's going to follow you around.

RW, for people working for a previous employer to *claim* off-the-record that "so and so resigned because of xyz" is rife with peril and that is why most will specifically advise their employees not to discuss coworkers' comings and goings with outsiders. Normally, all of these types of questions are routed through HR depts or appropriate management, who normally will not give specific reasons a person left, especially if they were not fired. Most companies go out of their way to avoid incurring liability and will not state reasons, even documented ones, for dismissal, much less resignation. This is because they don't want to be sued. Saying something negative, even in a job review, about a person which subsequently costs them a job is begging to get sued.

supernav - if he has an official employment record documenting a positive drug test, that certainly can be used against him. At issue here is whether or not his previous employers are "out of line" in saying things like "he quit because of a positive drug test." I don't know of too many people working for any company who would disclose that type of information to a potential future employer. It is a really bad idea, from a legal perspective, to give editorials or opinions on why a person quit, especially if your disclosure causes their putative employer to not hire them.

 

[Syphonfilter]

RW, you are correct, I have never failed a polygraph in the past, which is amazing, as I am a high strung individual and get myself worked up fairly easily. The job which I applied to, as far as I know, does/did not use a polygraph. The simple fact of the matter is, unless my 7 page affidavit changes anything, I lost the opportunity to work for the company based on what a former supervisor said to the background investigator. In this case, after asking around a bit, I believe it might be my former captain who opened his mouth.

Again, hindsight is always 20/20, as I was actually going to let them fire me, but decided at the last second, literally, that resignation was my best bet. There are so many things I would do differently if I could go back in time however, fearing nothing, I gave a sample of urine......blah blah blah.........I thought at the very least they would say I merely resigned for outside reasons, but hell, they stuck the knife in one more time. It's just really hard getting back on your feet after an incident like this ...........fuck...........talk about major frustration!!

Thanks for all the responses..........