Globe and Mail – I was fired for possessing marijuana at work. Is that allowed?

I was fired for possessing marijuana at work. Is that allowed?

A Toronto employment lawyer at Samfiru Tumarkin LLP was asked by the Globe and Mail’s Careers section to provide his expert opinion on the matter. He explained why an employee in this case might be owed a substantial severance package.

Read the original question and the lawyer’s response to Andrea Yu’s article in the Globe and Mail.

THE QUESTION

I was fired from my job for a workplace health and safety violation. I had brought my travel bag with me to work, planning to head to the cottage directly from the office. Among my belongings was a small bag of marijuana. Unbeknownst to me, a co-worker must have smelled this because within minutes I was called in to speak to human resources.

The HR rep asked me if I had any marijuana with me that day. I admitted that I did. Since cannabis is now legal, I assumed this wouldn’t be an issue. The HR rep, however, informed me that I was in violation of the workplace health and safety policy and I was being fired for just cause.

Can they do this? I have never once been high at work. I have never been disciplined for anything in my seven years of employment with this company.

THE ANSWER

Although recreational cannabis is now legal across Canada, it does not necessarily give you carte blanche to bring marijuana with you to the office – even if you are not consuming the cannabis during working hours.

It is well within an employer’s right to create and enforce a policy that prohibits employees from possessing recreational cannabis in the workplace. Based on the wording of the policy, you may indeed be disciplined for bringing prerolled joints to work even though you intended on smoking them at the cottage.

Although you may have contravened the company’s policy on possessing cannabis in the workplace, your immediate dismissal for just cause is certainly a disproportionate response given you have no disciplinary record and were not intoxicated. Furthermore, for this type of policy to be legally enforceable, an employer must bring it to the attention of all affected employees. If the cannabis policy was not brought to your attention or you did not sign a form acknowledging that you had read and understood the terms, it is unlikely your previous employer can rely on the policy to assert that your possession of marijuana is justifiable grounds for termination with just cause.

In light of the above, you are surely entitled to a fair severance package and it appears your employer has left you high and dry.