The Washington Senate this week accepted a invoice that will shield hashish customers from pre-employment job discrimination. The measure, Senate Invoice 5123, was handed by the state Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 28-21 and can now be thought of by the Washington Home of Representatives.
Beneath the bill, employers can be barred from refusing to rent a job candidate primarily based solely on the outcomes of pre-employment screening for hashish use. The laws doesn’t embody safety for different substances, so screenings for different medication would nonetheless be allowed throughout the hiring course of.
“It comes right down to discriminating in opposition to individuals who use hashish,” state Senator Karen Keiser, the lead sponsor of the invoice and the chair of the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee, said in a statement cited by on-line information website The Middle Sq.. “For folks utilizing a authorized substance, having a pre-employment take a look at like that is simply plain unfair, and we should always cease it.”
“At a time when the variety of unfilled positions is extraordinarily excessive, we shouldn’t be limiting our workforce by deterring certified job candidates,” she added. “This laws opens the door for individuals who would possibly in any other case not even apply for a place.”
The laws doesn’t apply to some jobs together with positions within the airline and aerospace industries. The measure additionally doesn’t apply to jobs that require a federal background examine or safety clearance.
Whereas the invoice protects potential staff from drug assessments whereas making use of for a job, Keiser famous that the invoice doesn’t forestall employers from subjecting their staff to drug screenings for weed throughout employment. Beneath the measure, firms will nonetheless be allowed to fireplace staff who take a look at constructive for hashish so as to preserve a drug-free office. Employers may additionally topic staff to a drug take a look at for hashish use after a office accident or if they believe a employee is impaired by hashish whereas on the job.
“In case your employer desires to check you each week after you’re employed, they’re nonetheless in a position to try this,” Keiser said. “That is merely opening the entrance door of getting right into a job. As a result of too many individuals who see that they should take a drug take a look at to even apply, don’t even apply.”
Washington Legalized Leisure Pot In 2012
Washington legalized leisure marijuana in 2012 with the passage of Initiative 502, a poll measure that was supported by practically 56% of voters. However whereas the measure protected hashish customers from prosecution, the initiative didn’t embody protections for staff who use weed off the job.
Nevada turned the primary state to guard job candidates from pre-employment drug assessments for hashish in 2019. Since then, different states have additionally handed employment safety measures, together with a California invoice defending staff from discrimination primarily based on their use of marijuana whereas off the clock that was handed final 12 months.
Hashish advocates who assist employment protections word that present drug screenings can solely decide the presence of hashish metabolites, which might stay within the system lengthy after utilizing marijuana. Burl Bryson, govt director of The Hashish Alliance, advised lawmakers at a public listening to final month that potential job candidates can eat hashish legally “and nonetheless take a look at constructive … weeks later.”
“If the identical method have been utilized to alcohol, employers would refuse employment to anybody who loved a beer or a glass of wine on the weekend,” said Bryson. “Everyone knows that this isn’t a workable normal.”
“It merely doesn’t make sense to base an employment choice on that type of unreliable final result and take a look at,” Keiser advised her colleagues within the Senate earlier than Wednesday’s vote.
Brian Fitzpatrick, CEO of the hashish trade compliance platform Qredible, stated that there are legit causes for some employers to take care of a drug-free office. However he added that “exceptions should be made, significantly for medical hashish customers, but additionally for accountable grownup customers.”
“There are insurance policies that exist that govern not displaying up for work intoxicated inebriated, and hashish ought to be no completely different,” Fitzpatrick wrote in an e mail to Excessive Occasions. “Not like alcohol, there’s analysis suggesting that hashish use doesn’t considerably impair job efficiency, as such, employers ought to re-evaluate their insurance policies concerning hashish use to create a extra equitable method to hashish customers.”