Fired pharmacy worker sues Walmart over drug testing procedures

A Clarke County pharmacy worker is suing Walmart, claiming the retailer fired her after she failed an improperly administered drug test.

In her lawsuit, Misty Coenen alleges that in 2014, Walmart hired her to work in one of the company’s stores as a pharmacy technician.

On Oct. 22, 2021, the lawsuit claims, District Manager Nancy Laymon called Coenen into her office where the two spoke to Walmart Global Investigator John Oldfather.

Coenen alleges Oldfather told her she needed to submit to a drug test based on reasonable suspicion of drug use that stemmed from a text-message exchange she had with someone four months earlier.

The next day, she submitted to the drug test, but the urine sample she provided was not split into two samples, as is normally the case, to allow for two separate tests. A few weeks later, she was fired, with her termination letter stating she had tested positive for drugs of some kind.

Her lawsuit alleges Walmart’s drug testing policy does not comport with the requirements of Iowa law in that there was no rational basis for the test, and the test itself did not result in the sample being split into two components, denying her the right to obtain a second test at a laboratory of her choosing.

Criminal court records indicate that in July 2021, Clarke County authorities obtained a search warrant for Coenen’s phone after she was charged with violating a no-contact order.

That case resulted in a deferred judgment but based on text messages recovered from her phone, Coenen was subsequently charged with 18 counts of violating a no-contact order. Those charges are still pending.