How to prevent pot in the factory now that marijuana is legal

The chairman of the Canadian Association of Mold Makers is calling for a zero-tolerance policy that would ban the use of cannabis by employees in manufacturing, where safety is critical.

“I think for any heavy industrial machinery where lives are at risk, I think zero tolerance is the only option,” said Jonathon Azzopardi, who is also president of Laval International, a moldmaking company based in the Windsor region.

“We have to wear safety glasses when we’re on the shop floor,” Azzopardi said. “Both parties are punished, and there’s a zero-tolerance level for not wearing safety glasses.

“For us zero tolerance is you cannot have [cannabis] in your system when at work and the employee is in charge of making sure they have none in their system at work.”

Azzopardi acknowledged employers cannot deny someone their right to use cannabis outside of their working hours, but he’s concerned about the unknowns around the now-legal drug.

“Our industry is a life-or-death situation, and we believe those rules should be different for us than for those in an office environment,” he said.

IMPAIRMENT A ‘GREY AREA’

The recreational use of cannabis became legal Oct. 17. Under the federal Cannabis Act, Canadians age 18 or older can possess up to 30 grams of legal cannabis in its dried or “equivalent nondried form” in public.

A Nanos Research survey conducted for CTV News indicated that 71 per cent of Canadians polled were not interested in smoking marijuana once it became legal.

Unlike alcohol, THC, the chemical in marijuana, can remain in a user’s system for days, weeks or months. But a positive drug test does not necessarily imply impairment, either.

“These are very grey areas and, unfortunately, I have a feeling somebody is going to get hurt before someone takes the time to do a full-blown study on the long-term and short-term effects of marijuana,” Azzopardi said.

He wants the federal government to consider giving employers the right to test for drugs when impairment is suspected. “If an employee in our case was under the influence and operating heavy machinery and was to kill somebody, we, as the employer, have no way to defend ourselves.”

EMPLOYERS ‘PANIC’

The new cannabis legislation has created a “panic” among employers, said Justine Laurier, an employment and labour lawyer with Borden Ladner Gervais. The difficulty in determining cannabis-related impairment sees to be the main concern among employers in “safety-sensitive environments,” she said. “There’s no way to detect impairment from a scientific point of view.”

Employers, Laurier said, are questioning whether they will be allowed to prohibit employees from using cannabis “off the clock.” It’s a question with no clear answer at this time, she said.

“From a medical point of view, we don’t know what the effect is,” Laurier said. “We don’t know how long THC can stay in your bloodstream. There are different effects on different people.”

Police forces and airlines have made such recommendations, but Unifor, the union representing most autoworkers in Canada, has warned that it will not accept a zero-tolerance policy for its members.

In an interview with the London Free Press, Niki Lundquist, a lawyer for Unifor, said the union is preparing for a fight on the issue.

“We’re seeing zero-tolerance policies — but it’s not just zero tolerance for impairment, it’s zero tolerance for use,” she said. “It’s as though an employer suddenly thinks it has the right to police off-duty conduct.”

Unifor represents 315,000 members, including almost 50,000 auto industry workers across Canada.

‘TREAT IT LIKE ALCOHOL’

John White, president of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association (CADA), said the organization’s 3,200 members have been advised to treat cannabis like alcohol, with clear policies and guidelines.

“Our advice is: Take a look at your provincial legislation,” White said. “Make sure
that you’ve got a policy dealing with it. Treat it like alcohol,
and if you’re unsure, please get legal advice.

“Just like you wouldn’t let your technicians go out at lunch and come back after having consumed alcohol, we don’t believe cannabis should be treated differently than that.”

Mark Nantais, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, said companies are working to ensure that the right policies are in place to cover off-the-job use of cannabis, whether it’s for medical purposes or recreational use.

“In some ways, it’s no different than impairment from alcohol or other things,” Nantais said. “There’s always the tension between human rights and the obligation to accommodate in terms of health and safety.”

The federal government has not provided much direction, Nantais said. And work environments are so different that it will be up to individual employers to determine how cannabis use will be handled and what policies will be enacted.

“Obviously, you have to have a policy that’s proper for that circumstance,” Nantais said. “If you have safety-sensitive areas in your plants, manufacturing or otherwise, or the operation of heavy equipment, the employer has to have something that protects the worker themselves as well as his colleagues in the workplace.”

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety has published a white paper on cannabis and the workplace. It offers a template for employers to develop policies around cannabis as well as a how-to guide on reporting and recognizing signs and symptoms of impairment.

As an employer, that means using behaviour as a determining factor to assess impairment. Is there an inability to concentrate or to make coherent decisions? If impairment is suspected, it’s important to have a conversation that can sometimes be uncomfortable, said Emma Ashurst, a senior occupational health and safety specialist at the centre. “You have a duty to enquire and a duty to check in,” Ashurst said.

The centre recommends employers seek legal advice before implementing a substance testing program because parameters have been set by the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The commission has written: “In deciding whether and how to conduct drug or alcohol testing in the workplace, an employer must consider a variety of factors including human rights law, safety, privacy, labour standards, the provisions of any applicable collective agreements, regulatory requirements, the level of supervision available in the workplace, among other considerations.”