Rojgar Job News

As the decade comes to a close, a time traveler from 2009 might be surprised to see how rapidly laws on marijuana have changed.  Last night’s Democratic Debate even featured a heated discussion about legalizing marijuana. But let’s imagine that this traveler is from Human Resources. The laws regarding medical marijuana are head-spinning; these laws have resulted in a significant impact in the areas of drug testing, hiring, discipline and ADA accommodations. Now add the fact that a neighboring state – Massachusetts – has legalized pot and, well, no wonder HR professionals are just trying to play catch up. Oh, and will Connecticut join Massachusetts in 2020 and legalize pot? I’ll try to make sense of all of this at an upcoming breakfast sponsored by the Western CT chapter of SHRM. The breakfast is set for December 11, 2019 at 8 a.m. at the Hampton Inn in Danbury.  I’ve even been promised a hot breakfast. In the interim, I recently came ac...

On June 5, 2019, Nevada’s governor signed Assembly Bill No. 132, becoming the first state to prohibit pre-employment drug testing for the presence of marijuana (though New York City was the first city to enact such a law, as we discussed in our previous post). The law makes it unlawful for any employer to fail or refuse to hire a prospective employee because the prospective employee submitted to a blood, urine, hair, or oral fluids drug test and the results of the screening test indicate the presence of marijuana. Of course, the law provides certain exemptions. The law will not apply to prospective employees applying for certain positions, including: As a firefighter; As an emergency medical technician; That requires an employee to operate a motor vehicle and for which federal or state law requires the employee to submit to screening tests; or That, in the determination of the employer, could adversely affect the safety of others. Further, if an employer requires an employee to su...

On June 25, 2019, Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker signed HB 1438, the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Taxation Act (“CRTA”), which, as of January 1, 2020, legalizes recreational use and possession of marijuana by adults aged 21 or older.  Illinois is now the eleventh US state to adopt a general law authorizing adult recreational use of marijuana (joining Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada, Vermont, and Washington, plus the District of Columbia).  And thirty-three states have enacted medical marijuana laws.  (We have posted about these and other marijuana-related developments impacting the workplace, for example, here, here, and here.)  What makes Illinois’ new law unique among these other states’ laws is its breadth.  For example, the CRTA addresses and attempts to create remedies for social inequities created through past enforcement of drug-related laws by authorizing the expungement of crimina...

New Jersey joins the growing list of states to offer employment protections for authorized users of medical marijuana. On July 2, 2019, New Jersey’s governor signed into law the Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act (“CUMCA”), providing job protections to medical marijuana users and creating new drug testing procedures for marijuana. The new law also changes the name of the New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act (N.J.S.A. 24:61-2 et seq .), expands patient access to medical marijuana, and reforms New Jersey’s medical marijuana program. Prior to these amendments, the law did not expressly require employers to accommodate medical marijuana use. In fact, it said just the opposite: “Nothing in this act shall be construed to require … an employer to accommodate the medical use of marijuana in any workplace.” Now, employers may be required to accommodate medical marijuana use to treat a disability. Adverse Action Prohibited Th...