In abstract
Below two new regulations, employers in California can’t ask employees about their use of hashish out of doors the office and will’t use hair or urine exams. Workers in building are excluded, as are candidates for federal jobs with background assessments.
Beginning within the new yr, California employers will likely be barred from asking employees about their use of hashish out of doors of labor, and from discriminating in opposition to them as a result of it.
Two expenses signed by means of Gov. Gavin Newsom previously couple of years intention to toughen the state’s prison hashish trade by means of updating out of date regulations. Meeting Invoice 2188, which Newsom signed in 2022, will restrict employers from the use of the result of hair or urine exams for marijuana — which is able to stumble on strains of hashish for days or perhaps weeks — of their selections to rent, hearth or penalize employees.
When the governor signed AB 2188 along side different cannabis-related expenses in 2022, he mentioned in a press unencumber that “inflexible forms and federal prohibition proceed to pose demanding situations to the trade and customers.”
SB 700, which Newsom signed this yr, clarifies AB 2188 by means of amending the state’s Honest Employment and Housing Act to bar employers from asking task candidates about their prior use of hashish.
California NORML, a nonprofit group that advocates for client rights associated with hashish, subsidized AB 2188. In its argument supporting the invoice, the group mentioned hair or urine trying out for marijuana does no longer stumble on precise impairment, a reality the government has stated. “Research point out that metabolite exams for previous use of marijuana are pointless in protective task protection,” the crowd mentioned.
The exceptions below the AB 2188 could be for employees within the construction and building trade and for task candidates and staff in positions that require a federal background investigation or clearance.
The Nationwide Federation of Impartial Industry lists the brand new regulations a few of the best 5 “compliance complications” for California’s small industry homeowners in 2024. California Chamber of Trade antagonistic AB 2188, although it got rid of its “task killer” label after some revisions, announcing earlier than the invoice used to be signed that employers chance legal responsibility after they “take reputable disciplinary measures” in opposition to staff. “Employers should be capable to stay their office protected by means of disciplining staff who arrive at paintings impaired,” the crowd mentioned.
However AB 2188 does no longer save you employers from the use of different exams to stumble on impairment, comparable to blood exams.
SB 700 accounts for employers’ rights to invite about an applicant’s felony historical past, however the employer won’t discriminate in opposition to an applicant when it unearths details about previous use of hashish associated with felony historical past until differently approved by means of regulation.
In 1996, California turned into the primary state to legalize marijuana for medicinal functions, and the state’s electorate legalized its leisure use in 2016. Leisure use of marijuana is now prison in 24 states and Washington, D.C.
