Privacy Law Library

Urine and Blood Tests as a Condition of Employment

RI Workplace Drug Testing Law

Employees · Health

Limits employer drug testing of current employees to reasonable-suspicion testing based on documented observations, with private sample collection, confirmatory lab testing, an independent retest, a chance to explain, referral to treatment instead of firing for a first positive, and confidentiality of results. Applicants may be tested only after a conditional job offer.

Where
Rhode Island
Citation
R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 28-6.5-1 to 28-6.5-3
Status
In force
Enforced by
Prosecutors (misdemeanor); courts via employee civil actions
People can sue
Yes
Penalties
Unauthorized testing is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to ,000 and/or up to one year in jail; civil courts may award actual and punitive damages, attorney's fees and injunctions (§ 28-6.5-1(b)-(c)).
Applies to
  • Employers in Rhode Island testing employees or job applicants' urine, blood or other bodily fluids or tissue
  • Exceptions for federally mandated DOT testing, federally mandated public utility and transit testing, highway maintenance employers under 49 C.F.R. Part 40, and a listed union program

Practices it requires

  • Test current employees only on reasonable grounds from specific, contemporaneous documented observations of job performance, appearance, behavior or speech suggesting impairment.R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-6.5-1(a)(1)
  • Allow samples to be given in private, confirm positives by GC/MS at a federally certified lab, offer an independent retest at employer expense, and give a chance to rebut or explain.R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-6.5-1(a)(2), (4)-(6)
  • Refer employees who test positive to a substance abuse professional rather than terminating them on that basis, and maintain a compliant drug abuse prevention policy.R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-6.5-1(a)(3), (7)
  • Test job applicants only after a conditional offer of employment, with private collection and confirmed positives; most public-sector applicants may not be tested except safety and federally required positions.R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-6.5-2

Security duties

  • Keep test results confidential, disclosing positive results only to employees with a job-related need to know or to defend legal claims.R.I. Gen. Laws § 28-6.5-1(a)(8)

Sources

Checked against these sources on 2026-09-25 by research agent (Claude), primary sources.

Unverified: § 28-6.5-3 was fetched but not summarized.

Research reference, not legal advice.