WASHINGTON—US airlines want to delay implementation of a new rule forcing them to observe urine collections for employee drug tests, saying employers need time to hire and train more workers.

Airlines need more test-sample collectors who are the same gender as test takers, the carriers said through their two Washington trade groups. Currently, most employees tested are men while the majority of those who collect the samples are women, the groups said.

The gender divide was previously inconsequential because observation was required in only a few cases, the Air Transport Association and Regional Airline Association said in a petition to the US Transportation Department released late Tuesday.

The airlines’ request follows a similar petition by railroad trade associations on August 6. Also, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., the second-largest US railroad, and eight labor unions filed a legal challenge to the new rule August 13.

The Transportation Department has received the industry requests and “will respond to these petitions,” the agency said in an e-mailed statement, without being more specific.

Transportation Secretary Mary Peters announced the new rule on June 30 as a way to cut down on drug-test cheating. The rule covers 12.1 million employers, workers and test monitors.

US truck driver tests may not be rigorous enough, with 42 percent of screening locations visited by investigators failing to follow proper procedures, the  Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’ investigative arm, found in a study published in May.

In 2007 the GAO found that truck drivers can easily cheat on drug tests by using fake licenses and submitting diluted urine samples. GAO investigators used bogus licenses to undergo screening at all 24 test sites examined, showing users could evade detection by sending others in their place.

     The airlines cited the new rule’s provision that requires direct observation of tests for workers returning to duty or taking follow-up examinations. They also cited regulations forcing observers to ask employees to remove clothing to ensure the workers don’t have a prosthetic device.

     The two airline groups’s members include carriers such as AMR Corp.’s American Airlines, UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, Mesa Air Group Inc. and Pinnacle Airlines Corp.

     The Association of American Railroads and American Short Line and Regional Railroad Association also asked Peters’s agency for a delay in the rule implementation to November 1.

     In a filing with the US Court of Appeals in Washington, lawyers for Burlington Northern’s BNSF Railway Co. said supervised testing without “reasonable suspicion” violates the US Constitution’s ban on unjustified searches.

     The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, the United Transportation Union International and other groups also signed onto the filing.

     The Transportation Department said in its statement that it “has also received notice of the litigation and will respond to that as appropriate.” Bloomberg

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US airlines seek Federal delay of test

WASHINGTON—US airlines want to delay implementation of a new rule forcing them to observe urine collections for employee drug tests, saying employers need time to hire and train more workers.