On May 12, 2016, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) published a rule that required a “reasonable procedure” for employees to report work-related injuries and illnesses and prohibited retaliation against employees who report such injuries or illnesses.  The regulations defined an unreasonable procedure as one that deterred or discouraged a reasonable employee from accurately reporting a workplace injury or illness.  Although no portion of the rule itself expressly prohibited post-accident drug and alcohol testing, commentary accompanying the rule stated drug testing policies should limit post-incident testing to situations in which employee drug use is likely to have contributed to the incident and for which the drug test can accurately identify impairment caused by drug use.  Since then, there has been great uncertainty among employers as to when post-accident drug and alcohol testing policies and procedures could be applied.  Last week, on October 11, 2018, OSHA issued a memorandum clarifying that the Department’s position is that the May 2016 rule does not prohibit post-incident drug testing.  The memorandum stated that most instances of workplace drug testing are permissible under the rule and then listed the following as examples: (a) random drug testing; (b) drug testing unrelated to the reporting of a work-related injury or illness; (c) drug testing under a state workers’ compensation law; (d) drug testing under other federal law, such as a U.S. Department of Transportation rule; and (e) drug testing to evaluate the root cause of a workplace incident that harmed or could have harmed employees.  Of course, the memorandum included the caveat that the testing must include all employees whose conduct could have contributed to the incident, not just employees who reported injuries.  Assumedly, doing the latter could still subject the employer to retaliation.  To read the complete memorandum, click here.