Aldermen want random drug, alcohol tests for all city workers, including themselves

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Updated: September 18, 2011 12:15AM

City employees — from aldermen on down — would be subject to random drug and alcohol tests under a New York-style crackdown proposed Wednesday by the city’s two most powerful aldermen.

Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) and Pat O’Connor (40th), Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s City Council floor leader and chairman of the Committee on Audit and Workforce Development, say random testing would minimize “errors in judgment” by city employees on duty.

“Chicago aldermen should be included . . . because elected officials should lead by example,” Burke said in written statement.

O’Connor added that random testing of all employees would “reduce the number of accidents and workers’ compensation claims filed by the city.”

Burke cited research done by the National Institute of Drug Abuse that shows drug and alcohol abusers are five times more likely to file workers’ comp claims. That creates “fiscal issues that can no longer be ignored” by a city facing a $1.2 billion a year structural deficit.

Last month, a city laborer allegedly driving drunk drove a city truck onto a Gold Coast sidewalk, injuring a group of pedestrians, some seriously.

During a break at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, O’Connor acknowledged that the ordinance was motivated, in part, by the Gold Coast accident. Although drug testing is subject to collective bargaining, O’Connor said it would be difficult for union leaders to oppose an edict that applied to everyone.

“We think it will save some money [in workers’ comp claims]. It might even save some lives,” O’Connor said.

Currently, only police officers, firefighters and drivers with commercial drivers licenses are subject to random drug and alcohol testing. The Chicago Fire Department has a “last chance policy” that offers counseling to firefighters and paramedics who test positive.

But the ordinance introduced Wednesday does not stipulate what would happen to an employee who tests positive. Nor does it say whether the results would be made public.