Appeals court revives race bias claims over lopsided drug test response

Hours after walking off the jobsite, the White coworker contacted the direct supervisor asking to keep his job. According to the court, a company executive offered him his position back the next workday. His only condition was agreeing to future random drug tests. He did not have to pass a test before returning to work.

The two Black workers sought the same deal. Both reached out to their direct supervisor and other managers multiple times in February and March 2021, according to the court. They received non-committal responses and unreturned calls. One of them also contacted the company’s owner, who promised to call back but never did.

The pay records reflected the same pattern. All three workers put in four hours on the day they refused the drug test. The White coworker was paid for a full shift. The two Black workers were paid for four hours only.

Several weeks later, the company filled the vacated positions with two White workers. One of them had been fired by the same company eight months earlier for failing a drug test. The company required him to pass a test before starting again but did not test him any further after that.

The Eleventh Circuit applied what it called the “convincing mosaic” standard – an approach that looks at the full picture of indirect evidence rather than requiring a near-identical comparison employee. The court identified six threads forming that mosaic: the lopsided rehire treatment, the pay gap, the replacement hires, the shifting drug-test rationale, the denied development opportunities, and the supervisor’s conduct toward the two workers.