■■ Upon an employee’s return to work after a substantial absence due
to an addiction problem where the employee poses a potential
danger to themselves or their co-workers if intoxicated at work.
■■ Where the employer has reasonable grounds to believe that the
employee is intoxicated at work and poses a potential danger to
themselves, their co-workers or others. Reasonable cause in such
circumstances may be gleaned from physical indicators such as
slurred speech; erratic or abnormal behaviour; blood-shot or watery
eyes; identifiable odours; a deterioration in judgment, attention,
concentration, comprehension or reaction time; drowsiness; a loss
of motor co-ordination or control; and/or involvement in a serious
workplace accident or “near-miss” incident.
IMPLEMENTING POLICIES AND TRAINING
Moving forward in this new era of additional and increased access
to legalized intoxicants means that employers need to review and
update their workplace codes of conduct as well as many of their
programs and policies as the laws evolve. All of these policies must
work together to establish clear expectations on what is acceptable
and unacceptable use of intoxicants as well as the consequences
for noncompliance. The ultimate goal is to establish when an
employee is reasonably fit to perform their work and in compli-ance
with all legal standards.
As these codes, policies and programs relate to recreational
marijuana, these expectations shouldn’t be much different from
current ones concerning the use of alcohol, prescription medica-tions
and any other intoxicants in the workplace that could pose
a hazard or undermine employees’ ability to meet or maintain
acceptable performance standards.
Particularly, workplace anti-intoxicant policies should:
■■ Not equate use with abuse.
■■ Be updated to include a clear definition of “impairment” that
covers marijuana use.
■■ Establish clear expectations on what and where is acceptable
and unacceptable use of intoxicants as well as the consequences
for noncompliance.
workplace wellbeing
PRE-EMPLOYMENT
TESTING OR
SCREENING OF
APPLICANTS
FOR DRUG OR
ALCOHOL USE OR
IMPAIRMENT AS
A GENERAL RULE
IS PROHIBITED.
■■ Include a duty on employees to disclose any use of an intoxicant
in the workplace.
■■ Include a requirement that employees provide appropriate
medical documentation confirming the need to ingest any
prescription medication that may cause impairment or result in
a safety risk at work.
■■ Generally, must not be a zero-tolerance policy as sobriety will
not likely be provable as a bona fide occupational requirement
for most positions and to improperly make it one would be in
breach of employers’ duty to accommodate employees who are
prescribed marijuana to treat symptoms of a disability.
■■ Continue to make it clear that employers continue to have the
right to take every reasonable precaution to ensure the safety
of their workplaces and to prohibit impairment on the job,
including by applying progressive discipline up to a termination
for just cause without notice or payment in lieu, subject to
accommodation considerations.
Codes of conduct and expense policies should be updated to
address whether limited use of recreational marijuana is permis-sible
and/or reimbursable if consumed during work-related social
events or networking functions.
Smoke-free laws apply to smoking marijuana in the same way
they do to smoking regular tobacco products, whether the mar-ijuana
is prescribed or recreational. Smoking policies should be
updated to highlight that just because recreational marijuana is
legal, this doesn’t suddenly permit workers to smoke marijuana or
tobacco in the workplace in violation of the Smoke Free Ontario
Act or Ontario’s regulations to the Cannabis Act (that prohibits
public consumption).
Workplace scent-related policies and complaint procedures
need to be examined to ensure that they cover incidents where
marijuana is smoked or applied topically.
Health and safety policies and related training should be
updated so supervisors and co-workers are trained on identifying
behavioural symptoms of both problematic use and dependence
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