Transit workers giving urine sample may get audience

Some transportation workers in Boston and across the country may soon have an audience when they give urine samples for workplace drug tests, according to revised federal regulations.

The new US Department of Transportation Guidelines, which take effect in November, will require "directly observed collection" of urine from employees who previously tested positive for drugs or from those whose prior urine samples appear to have been tampered with.

"The observer must personally and directly watch the urine go from the employee's body into the collection container," the new guidelines say.

Observers will also demand that those employees raise their shirt and drop their pants to ensure that the employee is not using a device to sabotage the test, the new guidelines say.

Observers are required to be the same gender as the employees being tested.

"Unfortunately, there is a flourishing industry designed to help people facilitate continuing drug use," said Brian Turmail, a spokesman for the US Department of Transportation. "The only way we can get around that is to do a visual inspection."

The new rules were initially set to go into effect tomorrow, but the department postponed implementation to allow agencies to provide feedback and give them time to hire observers.

"Agencies were saying they need more time to have on board the right gender mix of observers," Turmail said.

The new rules will affect transportation workers across the state whose jobs could effect public safety, such as those operating or maintaining equipment or doing law enforcement, MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.

He said he did not expect significant changes in the agency's drug testing procedures.

Currently, employees who fail a drug test are subject to periodic random follow-up tests. Under the new rules, those employees will have to take observed tests in the future.

That prospect outraged Terrence Ward, who works in bus operations for the MBTA and heads the Concerned Minority Employees Group. He has never failed a drug test, but he said such policies could lead down to other policies that infringe on rights of some employees.

"And then there's the whole privacy issue," he said. "I don't want anyone in the bathroom with me while I do my business."

Christopher Ott, a spokesman from the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, questioned how much the new policy would improve safety, given that regulators don't test for other factors that impair people, such as lack of sleep.

"It seems to be very invasive of people's privacy for a limited gain," he said.

The US Department of Transportation will be taking suggestions on the policy for the next 30 days, but it is not likely to make major changes Turmail said.

"What we want to do is find a way to respect everyone's privacy, but also find a way to protect the absolute safety of the transportation system," he said.

Tania deLuzuriaga can be reached at deluzuriaga@globe.com.