This bill is part of the 2021 Cannabis Bills section of our ongoing update on California Cannabis Legislation – see the full California Cannabis Law Legislative Update which includes information on cannabis bills from other years.
AB 1256 (Quirk D) Employment discrimination: cannabis screening test.
Existing law establishes various personal rights and makes unlawful certain employment practices that discriminate on certain protected bases. Existing law makes a person who engages in certain prohibited conduct liable in a cause of action by the aggrieved person.
This bill would prohibit an employer from discriminating against a person in hiring, termination, or any term or condition of employment because a drug screening test has found the person to have nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites in their urine, hair, or bodily fluids.
The bill would exempt from its provisions an employer that is required to conduct testing for nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites by federal law or regulations, or that would lose a monetary or licensing-related benefit for failing to conduct testing for nonpsychoactive cannabis metabolites. The bill would also exempt employment in the building and construction trades.
This bill would authorize a person who has suffered discrimination in violation of the bill’s provisions to institute and prosecute in their own name and on their own behalf a civil action for specified relief. The bill would also make related legislative findings and declarations.
Read more about California Cannabis Legislation – see the full California Cannabis Law Legislative Update.
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