Union Pacific Worker with Positive Drug Tests Wins Reinstatement

The Fifth Circuit ordered Union Pacific Railroad Co. Wednesday to reinstate a car foreman who returned two positive drug tests in four years, saying that a trial judge shouldn’t have overturned the arbitrator’s ruling in his favor.

The company failed to convince the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit that the arbitrator’s conclusion that Roland Beltran’s second positive drug test was a false positive, and that he should be reinstated at Union Pacific, was at odds with the medical review officer’s determination that Beltran’s test returned a true positive.

Beltran presented evidence at arbitration that he was taking ...