Washington D.C. Council Passes Law Prohibiting Companies From Firing Workers For Cannabis Use – Benzinga

Non-public firms in Washington D.C. is not going to be allowed to fireplace employees who take a look at optimistic for marijuana use, underneath a regulation unanimously handed by the D.C. Council Tuesday. It is going to now head to the desk of Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) for her signature.

Though leisure marijuana use has been authorized within the District since a 2014 poll initiative, employment legal guidelines that require drug testing have allowed firms to penalize employees who use hashish. DC Council members mentioned they consider no employee must be fired for utilizing a authorized substance.

The brand new regulation makes exceptions, nevertheless, for employees in “safety-sensitive jobs,” equivalent to those that function heavy equipment, development employees, police and safety guards who carry weapons and medical professionals, reported the Washington Submit. 

Though DC had already created protections for metropolis workers who use hashish, the District’s authorities can not forestall the federal authorities from disciplining federal workers for marijuana use resulting from its standing as a Schedule I drug. The truth is, the Biden administration just lately clarified that individuals making use of to work as White Home interns will probably be required to fill out a normal type to reveal prior drug use together with marijuana.

The DC Council referenced a report from the American Habit Facilities that mentioned authorities jobs had been the almost definitely to check workers for marijuana use, exhibiting that the regulation wouldn’t have a big impact on the businesses it targets.

Nonetheless, council members mentioned the native DC regulation would shield some employees, particularly individuals of colour.

On the Tuesday legislative assembly, council members pointed to a 2013 Yale research that discovered 63 % of Black employees have jobs that conduct drug testing, in contrast with 46 % of White employees.

Quite a few different states have handed laws that gives comparable protections for employees, together with New Jersey and Nevada.