Employer also ordered to reinstate a veteran butcher fired for failing workplace drug test
The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has called out the "rigid" application of an employer's drug and alcohol policy that led to the dismissal of a veteran butcher who had openly disclosed his prescription for medicinal cannabis.
ERA member David Beck found Alliance Group's policy was too narrowly focused and left no meaningful room for employees' individual circumstances.
"I find too much emphasis was placed... on a somewhat simplistic and rigid application of the company drug and alcohol policy that was primarily aimed at resolving problems with those abusing illicit drugs or alcohol," Beck said in the ruling.
The case involved the dismissal of Paul Brown, a butcher with nearly four decades of service, after failing a second workplace drug test while using prescribed medicinal cannabis.
Brown had been prescribed medicinal cannabis oil in 2022 to manage chronic pain from a serious 2016 workplace injury that left him hospitalised for an extended period.
The butcher disclosed the prescription to Alliance's occupational health nurse the following year, providing a medical certificate confirming he was "being treated with medicinal thc/cbd drops for his chronic medical conditions."
Alliance placed the certificate on Brown's file and took no further action, including no health monitoring, no review of its own policy settings, no guidance to Brown on managing the...
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