§21-3E-16. Employer Testing; Notice; Termination; Forfeiture

WV Code § 21-3E-16 (2019) (N/A)
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If an employer implements a drug-free workplace program in accordance with this article, which includes notice, education and procedural requirements for testing for drugs and alcohol pursuant to this law, the employer may require the employee to submit to a test for the presence of drugs or alcohol. If a drug or alcohol is found to be present in the employee’s system at a level proscribed by the employer’s policy, the employee may be terminated and forfeits his or her eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits and, if injured at the time of the intoxication, indemnity benefits under the Worker Compensation Laws. However, the employer’s drug-free workplace program must notify all employees that it is a condition of employment for an employee to refrain from reporting to work or working with the presence of drugs or alcohol in his or her body and that policy must also state that if an injured employee refuses to submit to a test for drugs or alcohol, that employee forfeits eligibility for unemployment compensation benefits, and if injured, for indemnity benefits under the Worker Compensation Laws. Employers who do not notify their employees of this condition of employment waive their right to assert that eligibility for benefits is entirely forfeited.

Nothing herein may be construed or deemed to affect subsection (a), section two, article four, chapter twenty-three of this code and the provisions of said section shall be the sole manner in which intoxication may be proven to establish such intoxication as the proximate cause of an injury for purposes of said chapter.