DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ZONE - continued Understanding an Employer’s Obligations When Domestic Violence Affects the Workplace
Over the past few months, the media has reported extensively about several incidents of domestic violence involving professional athletes. While these high-profile cases generate huge attention, it is important to remember that domestic violence is a problem of epidemic proportion. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men have experienced physical or sexual violence or stalking by an intimate partner. Only a small fraction of these cases involve millionaire athletes.
Whether it is obvious or not, domestic violence impacts workplaces across the United States on a daily basis. When this happens, an employer is often left struggling with the question of how – if at all – it should acknowledge and react to an employee‘s sensitive and highly personal situation.
Source:
http://www.nylaborandemploymentlawreport.com/ Read more
DRUG SCREENING What Does Alaska’s and Oregon’s Legalization of Marijuana Change for Employers?
On November 4, Oregon, Alaska, and the District of Columbia became the latest jurisdictions to pass referendums decriminalizing the recreational possession and use of small amounts of marijuana. Oregon‘s law becomes effective in July 2015; Alaska‘s probably in February 2015.
Each of these laws is slightly different (read the full text here of the measures in Oregon, Alaska, and D.C.). Employers in all these jurisdictions are likely wondering about how does this affect my company‘s anti-drug policy or drug testing program? The short answer is that none of these laws will change much for employers. The laws primarily simply decriminalize the personal and private possession and recreational use of small amounts of marijuana. They do not impose any new limits or obligations on employers, or create any new rights for employees when they are at work.
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Admissions of Drug Use By Employees Are Not The Same As Positive Test Results in Minnesota A common occurrence when employees are confronted with a requirement to take a drug test: they often confess. Sometimes they suggest that the employer need not bother with the test because they know they will test positive. Under the Minnesota Drug and Alcohol Testing in the Workplace Act (―DATWA‖), admissions of drug use and a positive drug test have very different legal ramifications. In Minnesota, ―an employer may not discharge an employee for whom a positive drug test result . . . was the first such result for the employee on a drug or alcohol test requested by the
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