21 V.S.A. § 513

This is the official text of 21 V.S.A. § 513, part of Vermont’s V.S.A — part of the compiled statutory law of Vermont, published by the state as "V.S.A." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§ 513. Drug testing of employees; prohibitions; exceptions

Official statutory text

(a) General prohibition. Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, an employer shall not, as a condition of employment, promotion, or change of status of employment, or as an expressed or implied condition of a benefit or privilege of employment, do any of the following:

(1) request or require that an employee take or submit to a drug test;

(2) administer or attempt to administer a drug test to an employee; or

(3) request or require that an employee consent, directly or indirectly, to a practice prohibited under this subchapter.

(b) Random or company-wide tests. An employer shall not request, require, or conduct random or company-wide drug tests, except when such testing is required by federal law or regulation.

(c) Exception. Notwithstanding the prohibition in subsection (a) of this section, an employer may require an individual employee to submit to a drug test if all the following conditions are met:

(1) Probable cause. The employer or an agent of the employer has probable cause to believe the employee is using or is under the influence of a drug on the job.

(2) Employee assistance program. The employer has available for the employee tested a bona fide rehabilitation program for alcohol or drug abuse and such program is provided by the employer or is available to the extent provided by a policy of health insurance or under contract by a nonprofit hospital service corporation.

(3) Employee may not be terminated. The employee may not be terminated if the test result is positive and the employee agrees to participate in and then successfully completes the employee assistance program; however, the employee may be suspended only for the period of time necessary to complete the program, but in no event longer than three months. The employee may be terminated if, after completion of an employee assistance program, the employer subsequently administers a drug test in compliance with subdivisions (1) and (4) of this subsection and the test result is positive.

(4) Administration of test. The drug test is administered in accordance with section 514 of this title.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.