How does the return-to-duty process conclude?

(a) As the employer, if you decide that you want to permit the employee to return to the performance of safety-sensitive functions, you must ensure that the employee takes a return-to-duty test. This test cannot occur until after the SAP has determined that the employee has successfully complied with prescribed education and/or treatment. The employee must have a negative drug test result and/or an alcohol test with an alcohol concentration of less than 0.02 before resuming performance of safety-sensitive duties.

(b) As an employer, you must not return an employee to safety-sensitive duties until the employee meets the conditions of paragraph (a) of this section. However, you are not required to return an employee to safety-sensitive duties because the employee has met these conditions. That is a personnel decision that you have the discretion to make, subject to collective bargaining agreements or other legal requirements.

(c) As a SAP or MRO, you must not make a “fitness for duty” determination as part of this re-evaluation unless required to do so under an applicable DOT agency regulation. It is the employer, rather than you, who must decide whether to put the employee back to work in a safety-sensitive position.

(d) As the employer, if a SAP who is otherwise fully qualified under this subpart performed a remote evaluation of the employee outside the geographic jurisdiction for their credential(s), the employee who they evaluated will not be required to seek the evaluation of a second SAP. If you decide that you want to permit the employee to return to the performance of safety-sensitive functions, you will proceed with the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section.

[65 FR 79526, Dec. 19, 2000, as amended at 88 FR 27650, May 2, 2023]