New Jersey employers have finally received a roadmap from the state on marijuana in the workplace. Late last week the Cannabis Regulatory Commission issued the long-awaited guidance as a first step toward the development of permanent standards outlining how businesses should respond if a worker is impaired due to marijuana. A key recommendation says employers can, but aren’t required to, use so-called Workplace Impairment Recognition Experts, or WIREs, when determining if an employee is high at work.
The long-awaited interim regulations for the nascent industry came as a relief to employers, who said they had been left in the dark on how to keep their workplace free of drugs.
While a positive drug test for marijuana won’t by itself be grounds to fire or discipline a staffer, or to decline to hire someone, an employee could still be let go if they’re also shown to be under the influence during work hours.
The CRC says that workers have the right to use marijuana on their off-time but adds that businesses also have the right to keep a drug-free workplace.
“Employers have the right to maintain a drug-free workplace…Employers may require an employee to undergo a drug test upon reasonable suspicion of an employee’s usage of cannabis or cannabis products…” the CRC wrote in its guidance.
Some New Jersey employers are expressing frustration with their attempts to create a drug-free workplace. When recreational marijuana was legalized last year, leaders also agreed on a provision to create workplace-impairment recognition experts, or WIREs. Since a person can test positive for marijuana for quite some time after using it, the role of the WIREs is to determine if an employee is impaired on the job.
Permitted Workplace Rules
Under the new law an employer may still:
- Maintain “a drug- and alcohol-free workplace;”
- Prohibit “the possession, transfer, display, transportation, sale and growth” of cannabis “in the workplace;” and
- Promulgate a policy that employees shall not use cannabis or be intoxicated “during work hours.”
Cannabis Detection