QUESTION
Can I fire an employee that smoked marajuana at work, while on the clock and on site?
Asked on Mar 30th, 2015 on Employment Contracts - Washington
More details to this question:
Owner could not find the employee so he went to look for him out in our lot, found him hunched down in his personal truck hidden behind an rv unit in the back lot. When he called his name again the employee jumped, quickly closed the door to his truck and walked the opposite direction from the owner who followed him calling his name. The employee then stopped and when speaking with the employee the owner said the employee was acting strange and suspicious. He told the employee what he wanted and watched as the employee walked to the front of the lot and then went back to the employees truck, looked in the window and saw a pot pipe. He took a picture. He did not know what to do or if he could simply fire the employee. The owner and company has a no drugs, no alcohol rule. Can he legally fire the employee for this in Washington State? We are a small private employer with 20 total employees and we don't know what we can do legally?
1 ANSWER
I assume that you have this question because pot has been legalized in Washington, but this makes no difference. It's legal to drink scotch, but you could certainly fire someone for drinking it while on duty, especially if the employer had a no alcohol policy.
Do you have a contract with this employee (could be a union contract, or implied from the terms of an employee handbook) which limits the reasons why they can be fired or requires that certain procedures be followed first? Even then, you would be able to fire the person for using pot (unless the contract specifically said you couldn't, which is unlikely in the extreme), you just might have to go through some procedural hoops first.
Absent such a contract, you can fire an employee for any reason not prohibited by statute, such as for his race, religion, gender, etc. If you had discovered other employees, of a different race, smoking pot and had not fired them, the employee might have a colorable claim that he was being discriminated against unlawfully. If the pot was being used medicinally, the employee might claim that he was being fired for a medical disability that didn't affect his job performance, but I don't think this argument will fly.
Answered on Mar 31st, 2015 at 1:42 PM