Ban on pre-employment marijuana testing to impact HR policies nationwide, experts say
New York City's ban on pre-employment testing for marijuana will likely have national repercussions for multistate companies. Photo Credit: Getty Images/Sean Gallup
By Lauren Cooklauren.cook@amny.com @L_Cook865Updated September 25, 2019 8:47 AM
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A new law that bans most private companies in New York City from testing job applicants for marijuana as part of the hiring process may have an impact that reaches far past city limits.
Local Law 91, which was passed by the City Council in April, designates pre-employment testing for the presence of tetrahydrocannabinols — the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana commonly known as THC — as a discriminatory practice.
While the law provides exemptions to a handful of industries, including law enforcement, commercial drivers and anyone who cares for medical patients or children, it will likely force many multistate companies with offices in the city to remove or rework their drug testing policies nationwide.
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“You’re going to see changes in employment policies across the country because for a national company it becomes too hard to have different HR policies, and then you run into discrimination issues if you’re drug testing in New Jersey but not in New York,” said Rob Wilson, president of the human resources firm Employco. “The last thing you want is a national drug policy and you’re not on top of this law, you could find yourself with some big headaches.”
The law doesn’t go into effect until May 2020, which gives affected companies time to rework their policies, but Wilson said he’s already seen a shift away from pre-employment drug testing as more states legalize medical and recreational use of the drug.
“A lot of our clients, they’re adjusting their policies for after a job has been accepted,” he said. “So our clients that have zero tolerance are pretty much in the group [of exemptions], working at the airports or clients that have people driving vehicles for work.”
In addition to the ongoing culture shift surrounding marijuana, opponents of pre-employment drug testing argue it does more harm than good by depleting the talent pool either through positive test results or encouraging prospective employees to avoid applying all together
