Just a guess, but something tells me those at the top of the heap have not experienced the same drug tests. They can afford better attorneys to fight for the chunky payouts. If only the corporate world spent as much time figuring out how to stop payouts to the so-called leadership who lead into this recession we'd be much better off.
Employers are increasingly using drug testing to get rid of staff without having to make redundancy payouts, as a way of cutting costs during the recession, a charity has said.
Release, which focuses on drugs, the law and human rights, reported a four-fold increase in calls to its drugs team about problems with workplace testing in the first three months of 2009 compared with the same period last year.
In the first quarter of 2008, the team received 493 calls, with just 31 (6.2%) related to testing at work. In the first three months of this year, 548 calls were received with 145 (26.4%) about this issue.
In many cases callers have been getting in touch in a state of distress, having been tested for the first time after years in the same job. Often a programme of voluntary redundancies was announced, followed by workplace medicals for the remaining staff, including a drug test.
