This week, Governor Rick Scott and lawyers representing a state workers’ union have agreed on the types of Florida government employees who can be forced to undergo suspicion-less drug tests. This agreement ends a four-year legal battle that cost taxpayers an estimated $675,000.

The ongoing dispute has continued for over a year and centered around which employees can be subjected to random drug testing after an appellate court found that Scott’s blanket drug-screening policy violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

In a settlement agreement filed in federal court this past Monday, the state agreed to pay the ACLU $375,000 in legal costs for the drawn-out litigation and to limit the drug tests to about 7,000 workers in 157 different job classes, a fraction of the 34,000 employees Scott’s blanket policy was intended to cover. The agreement applies to the union’s collective bargaining units, which include employees who are not dues-paying members, and job applicants.

The agreement, which still requires court approval, identified more than 100 job classes that can be tested for drug or alcohol use, mostly involving workers in positions that deal with vulnerable children or adults, handle heavy equipment or are already required to undergo medical tests for other reasons.

You can read more on this here: http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2015/04/21/gov-rick-scott-state-workers-union-end-costly-legal-battle-over-drug-testing-of-state-workers