Section 301(a) of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act provides an exclusion of benefits for injuries sustained because of the illegal use of drugs, where such use is a proximate cause of injury. The burden for establishing a causal relationship between illegal drug use and a worker’s injury lies with the employer, and the same safeguards that one would expect for a criminal case are equally applicable to workers’ compensation claims. Specifically, there must be a chain of custody between the claimant’s drug testing and detection of illicit drug use to meet the burden of proof for a denial of benefits like in Luvine v. WCAB (Erisco Industries) . If the employer fails to establish chain of custody between a claimant’s drug testing and illicit drug use, thereby resulting in a compensation award, can the defective test result be used as a basis for a suspension of benefits on the grounds that the employee’s misconduct led to a termination of employment?

In a decision filed Sept. 3, Erisco Industries Inc. v. WCAB (Luvine), the Commonwealth Court held that it could not. While the reader may, at first blush, conclude that the final outcome was obvious, the holding had more to do with personnel practices than actual compensability, as the employer was following its personnel procedures in attempting to show that work was available to the claimant but for his violation of the employer’s personnel rules.

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