Developments in Regulating Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing
Election Day 2014 saw Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia pass laws legalizing recreational marijuana. Almost half the states in this country have laws permitting medical marijuana. As state and local marijuana laws continue to proliferate, join us for an informative and timely 60-minute webinar addressing critical questions for employers, including:
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This November, voters in California will decide whether to mandate drug and alcohol testing for doctors in the Golden State.
Proposition 46 – formally known as “Drug And Alcohol Testing Of Doctors. Medical Negligence Lawsuits. Initiative Statute.” – will appear on the ballot in California’s upcoming elections. If passed, hospitals operating in the State will…
May unemployment benefits be denied where an employee authorized to use medical marijuana under state law tests positive for the drug on a workplace substance abuse test, is fired under the employer’s zero tolerance policy, and seeks unemployment compensation?
Michigan’s state Court of Appeals is being asked to provide an answer.
Rick Braska, a fork-lift …
AN ASSORTMENT OF MARIJUANA AND OTHER DRUG ABUSE HAPPENINGS…. HEROIN USE IS SURGING as governmental efforts mount to halt prescription drug abuse, UPI reports. With prescription opioids and other drugs getting harder to obtain, a study in the New England Journal of Medicine says heroin use has risen nearly100 percent in the past decade. …
Commercial laboratories owe a duty of care to drug testing subjects and the failure to follow established procedures may be a violation of that duty in certain circumstances, according to a recent decision by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Rodriguez v. Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings, d/b/a LabCorp, 2014…
Our colleague Michael Soltis at the Disability, Leave & Health Management Blog reports on efforts to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in such states as Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, and New Hampshire: Reefer Madness? More States Likely to Legalize Recreational Marijuana; More Challenges for Employers
The first law in the nation to require the widespread drug testing of health care employees may be on its way to passage, as the New Hampshire House of Representatives has passed by a vote of 289-48, without debate, “An Act relative to the drug-free workplaces for licensed health care facilities and providers,” on January …
An administrative assistant’s belief that her employer asked her to engage in unethical conduct in dealing with company drug testing and alcohol abuse incidents did not give her good reason to quit her job or receive unemployment benefits, a Minnesota court has held. That (a) the employee may have felt uncomfortable because the plant manager…
Michigan’s new drug testing disqualification law (Act No. 146 of 2013) amending the state’s “Employment Security Act” (MCL 421.129), provides that for one year after the enactment’s effective date (October 29, 2013), an individual will be considered to have refused an offer of suitable work if the prospective employer administers pre-employment drug tests on a…
In a case of first impression, a federal court in Maryland ruled recently that the state’s drug and alcohol testing statute prohibits private employers from conducting breath alcohol tests on its employees. Whye, et al v. Concentra Health Services, Inc., 12-cv-3432 (ELH) (D. Md. Sept. 24, 2013).
As employees of Vector Security, Inc., Wendell…
