e-type. The second subsidiary purpose was to assess the effect of the federal Drug-Free Workplace Act on the relationship between arbitration decisions and the termination case-type. A further purpose of the study was to identify any other factor that may affect the relationship between arbitration decisions and the termination case-type.
A search of Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) labor arbitration (LA) database located 173 employment termination cases wherein the employer's justification for terminating employment was on-the-job alcohol or narcotics use or possession. The definition of narcotics possession included the possession of narcotics paraphernalia. The date of the arbitration decision in the earliest of the 173 cases was 5 March 1969, and the date of the latest of the cases was 14 September 2000.
The dependent variable was the arbitration decision. The operational definition of the arbitration decision variable was as follows: (1) termination upheld or (2) termination overturned.
The independent variable was the termination case-type. The operational definition of the termination case-type variable was as follows: (1) alcohol (termination because of on-the-job alcohol use or possession) or (2) narcotics (termination because of on-the-job narcotics use or possession).
The first intervening variable was employee gender. The operational definition of the employee gender variable was as follows: (1) male or (2) female.
The second intervening variable was the federal Drug-Free Workplace Act. The operational definition of the Drug-Free Workplace Act variable was as follows: (1) law in effect or (2) before law. The enactment of the federal Drug-Free Workplace Act occurred in 1988; however, the publishing of the final rules implementing the Act occurred on 25 May 1990. Employing organizations implemented the provisions of the Act over the remaining months of 1990. The cut-off point used in this study to det...