SALEM, Ore.-When establishing workplace policies for drug and alcohol issues, an important step is staff communication, experts say.
Policies must be very clear that the credit union does not accommodate medical marijuana in the workplace, and the CU can't rely on employees pulling out the manual to know that-meetings must be held, sources said.
"Write your policy and communicate it to your employees so that it is never a surprise to them," said Elaine Rosenberg, GM of Advanced Reporting, a professional background screening services CUSO of Maps CU. "State what the law toward marijuana use is in your state and how it intersects with federal law."
Rosenberg said it should be clear whether the policies will include pre-hire screening, random testing, or both. "Be very open about how the credit union will respond if there is an issue."
Best practices include a strong written policy, agreed Kelly Tilden, partner and chair of the employment practice group at the law firm of Farleigh Wada Witt in Portland, Ore. "You should have a zero-tolerance policy which prohibits any detectable amount of illegal drugs--and illegal drugs must be defined to include drugs as defined under federal law. You must consider whether to do drug testing and what type of drug testing you will do."
Beverly Purtell, SVP at the Massachusetts CU League, Marlborough, Mass., added that since the use of medical marijuana is approved in her state, credit union HR teams need to get moving. "We have to carve out policies around this new regulation-our drug use and disability policies for example-and make sure we embrace this new law to protect our credit unions."
