Posted: December, 2000; Modified: April,
2001
Rebuttable Presumption Legislation Passed
NOTE: A challenge
to this bill
has been filed in the Ohio Supreme Court.The legislature has passed Am. Sub. H.B. 122. The bill permits employers to require workers who are injured on the job to submit to drug/alcohol testing.
This bill amends R.C. 4123.54 and provides a "rebuttable presumption" that where an employee tests positive for a controlled substance (alcohol or drugs which were not prescribed by a doctor), the controlled substance was the cause of the injury.
In such a situation, the injury would not be compensable because under R.C. 4123.54, an injury which is proximately caused by use of a controlled substance is not compensable under the Ohio Workers' Compensation system.
The statute sets forth time limits in which the tests must be performed, and also sets out levels for different controlled substances which must be shown by the various tests which are to be used. Only if the statutory requirements are met will this provision apply.
The statute also provides that failure to take a required test creates a rebuttable presumption that the injury was caused by use of a controlled substance.
This information was provided courtesy
of the Ohio
Workers'
Compensation Bulletin.