Hawaii County is settling an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit by agreeing to stop subjecting prospective county workers to urinalysis screenings. ADVERTISING Hawaii County is settling an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit by agreeing to stop subjecting prospective county workers
Hawaii County is settling an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit by agreeing to stop subjecting prospective county workers to urinalysis screenings.
Under terms of the settlement, the county will pay $115,000 in legal fees and stop requiring pre-employment urinalysis and other medical screenings, except for some employees considered “safety-sensitive” such as police officers.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of Rebekah Taylor-Failor, a Kailua-Kona resident who was required to complete a urinalysis before starting work as a county clerk.
The county said her drug test wasn’t going to screen for drug use, but assess her health.
The ACLU argued the test reveals private medical information such as whether someone is diabetic, pregnant or has a sexually transmitted disease and that the screenings were unrelated to job requirements.
A federal judge ruled the county couldn’t explain why it was entitled to her urine before starting work in a clerical, non-safety-sensitive job, the ACLU said.
Taylor-Failor continues working for the county. “I am grateful that I was able to begin working for the county without having to sacrifice the privacy of my medical information,” she said in a statement distributed by the ACLU.
ACLU of Hawaii Legal Director Daniel Gluck said, “Medical data is some of our most privately held information, and it is critical that we protect it from government overreach. The government has no right to perform invasive searches of bodily fluids to determine whether an office worker can perform his/her job.”
