POT & YOUR JOB Legal marijuana further complicates workplace safety issue for employers
For employers who want to maintain safe workplaces, especially in manufacturing and construction, the passage of Issue 2 and the sweeping legalization of recreational marijuana use complicates an already challenging landscape.
John Morris, executive director of the Homebuilders Association of Dayton, said the one thing employers cannot compromise is safety.
“An employer can still have a zero-tolerance policy for drug use,” Morris said. “They’re not required to accommodate an employee’s use of marijuana. They can still have drug-testing policies. They can still have zero tolerance.”
In brief, Issue 2′s passage made the possession and use of marijuana legal for people 21 and older in Ohio. But employers and landlords can still prohibit its use as a term of employment or in a lease agreement.
Either banning off-the-clock use or allowing it can come at a price, employers and trade groups tell this news organization. Limiting it could reduce job applicants in a tight labor market. But allowing pot use could impact insurance costs and create challenges in making sure employees aren’t high at work.
“The major impact that this may have — and we’ll see if it major — will revolve around the ability to hire and retain employees,” Morris said in a recent interview. Good employees are already hard to find for construction contractors. Issue 2 may create another challenge, lowering the number of candidates able or willing to pass drug tests, forcing a reconsideration of disciplinary action for the first discovered use of a now-legal drug.
“I think it’s a headache that’s been around a long time,” Morris said of the challenge contractors (and other employers) face in finding good people.
“Most employers will tell you the hardest thing is: You get somebody who’s willing and eager to work,” he said. “They come in. They have the aspiration to work in our industry — and then they