a99kitten's Musings

This is BS. If an employee is loaded at work, they should be fired. You are NOT a protected class because you feel the need to be high. You are a loser. And I don’t want you answering customer service calls, working on our servers or even making my cheeseburger at the local fast food place for that matter. Let alone handling blood work at a doctor’s office, driving a school bus or working on a construction site.

Drugs and alcohol impair your ability to think clearly and make rational decisions. Rattle off all of your BS excuses as to why it’ s not bad, why it should be legal, blah, blah, blah. Doesn’t matter. Keep your impaired self at home.

You want to blaze up and kill your brain cells one by one, up to you. But stay at home.  You aren’t allowed to be doing shots at your desk or snorting coke off your cubicle and you sure as hell shouldn’t be allowed to get high on your smoke break.

California’s employee-centric, anti-business laws are already ridiculous. Let’s add another thing to make it harder for employers to get rid of non-performing employees and easier for them sue for violation of their “rights”.

California truly is the land of fruit and nuts.

“Commentary: Prop. 19 Jeopardizes Workplace Safety

(October 13, 2010) The marijuana initiative on the November ballot (Proposition 19) is more about making it illegal for employers to have a marijuana-free workplace than it is about removing criminal penalties for possession.
Allan Zaremberg

What is in the language of Proposition 19 that should cause concern for all employers? Proposition 19 creates a new protected class of workers and prohibits discrimination against marijuana users, just like age, gender and ethnicity.

Thus, even though pre-employment drug testing is not per se prohibited, an employer cannot use the results of a positive marijuana test as the reason not to hire an applicant.

Moreover, unless a local ordinance is subsequently passed in a community, it will be legal to smoke marijuana in the workplace. Employers will be prohibited from disciplining or terminating an employee who is “high” at work unless the employer can show that the use “actually impaired” the employee’s job performance.

‘Actual Impairment’ Undefined

Under current law, an employer does not need to prove actual impairment to discipline for alcohol or drug use in the workplace. If Proposition 19 passes, an employee could still be disciplined for alcohol use, but could not be disciplined for marijuana use unless the employer could prove “actual impairment.” This term is undefined and untested and an accident may have to happen first before an employer can prove actual impairment.

Other than public safety employees, Proposition 19 would apply to everyone, private or public sector jobs, such as fork lift drivers, nurses and school bus drivers.

In addition, any employer who relies on federal funds that require a drug-free workplace could have the receipt of those funds jeopardized by the passage of Proposition 19.

Most news stories discuss only whether marijuana should be decriminalized. It is important to get these workplace issues in front of the voters. I encourage California Chamber of Commerce members to spread the word about how Proposition 19 could jeopardize the safety of your workforce and lead to new employment law litigation, unless it is defeated in November.

Allan Zaremberg is president and chief executive officer of the California Chamber of Commerce.”

http://www.calchamber.com/Headlines/Pages/CommentaryProp19JeopardizesWorkplaceSafety.aspx?sp_rid=MzAyNTU2MzExOAS2&sp_mid=35878871