Tag Archives: Workplace Safety

Can I Drug Test My Texas Employees for Marijuana?

As 2020 begins, many Texas employers are wondering if they can still drug test their employees for marijuana use. Several states have legalized recreational marijuana and most states allow medical marijuana. So what is a Texas employer to do?

After all, Texas sort of, kinda, decriminalized weed in the 2019 legislative session. When they legalized hemp because it is a drought-resistant agricultural crop, the Texas Legislature effectively said that cannabis with less than 0.3 percent concentration of THC, the psychoactive ingredient that gets you high, is “legal hemp”, while anything above that threshold is illegal marijuana.

However, making the determination of THC concentrations takes sophisticated equipment that the police departments and private testing labs don’t have yet. Many Texas police departments and district attorneys have announced they are not even bothering to prosecute possession of use of small amounts of marijuana. Therefore, it is, for all practical purposes, very difficult to determine if your employees are engaged in legal or illegal activities when it comes to weed.

In addition, the Texas Legislature expanded “compassionate use” (medical marijuana) in Texas, so that specialty doctors can prescribe medical marijuana to treat multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, terminal cancer, autism, and many kinds of seizure disorders. Past state law only allowed those very few patients diagnosed with intractable epilepsy to be prescribed medical cannabis products, which in Texas may only contain low levels of THC. Now, many more of your employees may be legally prescribed medical marijuana and you have to worry about violating the Americans with Disabilities Act when testing for marijuana.

Finally, CBD oil, which is a hemp-derived product, is legal in Texas and is being sold on every street corner. Unfortunately, there is little regulation of CBD products, so they may contain surprise ingredients like THC. The Fort Worth Star Telegram recently reported on lawsuit filed by a CBD consumer against a CBD oil manufacturer because he lost his truck-driving job after testing positive for marijuana when he used CBD oil for his aching back.

So do you as a Texas employer still test for marijuana? Yes, legally you still can. Think of weed like alcohol. It is may be more legal than it was before, but it can still impair your employees’ job performance and judgment, so you are entitled to know if your employee is stoned.

Continue reading Can I Drug Test My Texas Employees for Marijuana?

Preventing Workplace Violence

Do you as an employer have a plan to address workplace violence?  This topic is front and center in the wake of the recent workplace shootings in Hesston, KS, Kalamazoo, MI, and Roanoke, VA.  Although legislation has been introduced to provide a “safe harbor” for employees and employers to report violent or threatening behavior, it is important for employers to assess their own workplaces and look at what can be done to make that environment as safe as possible.

The House of Representatives introduced the “Safe Harbor for Reporting Violent Behavior Act” on February 11, 2016, in response to the on-air shooting of a television reporter and cameraman in Roanoke, VA.  This bill would provide immunity from lawsuits to individuals who, in good faith, make a report about an employee (or potential employee) who exhibits violent or threatening behavior.

However, regardless of whether or not this bill passes, employers still have a duty to examine their workplace violence policies and take steps to decrease any possible dangers in the workplace.  Several things that should be done include: Continue reading Preventing Workplace Violence

Workplace Posters For Free Online

There are companies that want to sell you expensive workplace posters that you don’t need to purchase because they are available for free online. Many employers are afraid that they don’t know which employment notices must be visible in the workplace, so they fall for the marketing pitch to pay for these expensive commercial posters.

As a Texas employer, have you received advertising in the mail similar to the notice pictured here? Such notices appear official, and can feel almost threatening, with warnings of penalties and fines associated with an employer failing to post current state and federal employment posters in the workplace.

Employment Poster Solicitation

It is not necessary for a Texas employer to pay $84 for the poster offered here. While it is true that posting certain notices and information is legally required, employers need not pay any company for this information. Free copies of the required posters can be found from the websites of each of the federal or Texas agencies that require them. The Texas Workforce Commission has graciously gathered a list of these posters into one place for you here.

Not only are you out the money if you buy one of these expensive posters, but these for-profit posters could actually hurt you if they promise rights to your employees that the law does not give them (such as promising Family and Medical Leave rights if the company has less than 50 employees and isn’t required to provide Family and Medical Leave). You don’t want to obligate yourself to things the law doesn’t require you to provide. The poster “invoice” pictured here didn’t ask the size of the employer’s workforce and apparently was not tailored to the laws to which a particular employer was subject.

As of August 2015, the posters that you as a Texas employer must have on your bulletin board, depending on the size of your workforce, are as follows: Continue reading Workplace Posters For Free Online

More Businesses Are Now Required to Keep Records of Work-Related Injuries

As of January 1, 2015, many employers who were previously exempt from the OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) requirements of tracking work-related injuries, will now have to prepare and maintain records of occupational injuries and illnesses using OSHA 300, 301, and 300A forms. If you have more than 10 employees, you may be one of those employers who has never had to worry about this before but will have to start this recordkeeping at the beginning of the new year.

Any employer of any size must report all work-related fatalities to OSHA within 8 hours. Under the new rule, all employers are also now required to report all work-related in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and loss of an eye within 24 hours to OSHA.

Those extreme situations are the only reporting requirements if you employ 10 or fewer people because you don’t have to worry about keeping injury logs for OSHA. Even if you have more than 10 employees, you do not have to keep the OSHA logs if you are in a “low-hazard industry.” But the definitions of “low-hazard industries” have changed, and that’s why you may have new reporting OSHA recordkeeping requirements.

Because OSHA has revised the regulation and is now using the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) instead of the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) to determine which industries fall into the low-hazard category, hundreds of thousands of employers will now be required to keep records that never had to before. It is important that you determine what the NAICS code is for your type of business so that you can tell how you will be affected by this revised rule, if at all.

Some of the business industries that will now have to keep OSHA 300 logs and post their injury records for employees to view include bakeries; automobile dealers; automotive parts, accessories, and tire stores; building material and supplies dealers; specialty food stores; beer, wine, and liquor stores; commercial and industrial machinery and equipment rental and leasing; performing arts companies; museums, historical sites and similar institutions; amusement and recreation industries; and some other personal services industries.

Some businesses that will still be defined as “low hazard” and will not have to keep OSHA records are law offices, insurance brokers, accounting firms, architectural and engineering firms, advertising agencies, schools, doctor and dentist offices, day care facilities, electronic and computer servicing companies, and religious organizations.

For more information and to discover if your industry now has to keep the OSHA records, go to https://www.osha.gov/recordkeeping. Here you can find links to a complete list of all of the business industries that are required to keep injury records, as well as a list of the exempt business industries.

You should also remain careful about terminating any employee who has reported an injury or workplace illness. OSHA prohibits employers from retaliating or discriminating against any employee who has suffered an on-the-job injury.

Preventing Guns in Your Texas Workplace

In 2012 in the state of Texas, 584,850 citizens were actively licensed to carry a concealed handgun. That amounts to approximately one legally armed citizen out of every 45 people in Texas. As a business owner or manager, if you do not want anyone carrying guns on your commercial premises because you are concerned about the potential violence that could occur, you have two options. First, you can prevent your employees from carrying a handgun by having a written policy prohibiting that in your employee policy manual. However, a recent amendment of the law does allow employees to have their gun locked in their vehicles, even if they are parked in a parking lot on your property.

Second, to prevent the public from carrying a concealed handgun on your property, you must have a “30.06 sign” posted in a conspicuous place clearly visible to the public (at every entrance is the best idea). The sign requirements are a single sign, both in English and Spanish, with 1” high letters, in contrasting colors, containing the exact language from the Texas Penal Code section 30.06. The language in English must read: “Pursuant to Section 30.06, Penal Code (trespass by holder of license to carry a concealed handgun), a person licensed under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code (concealed handgun law), may not enter this property with a concealed handgun.”

Other signs, such as a picture of a handgun with a red slash through it, are ineffective in Texas and concealed handgun license class instructors tell their students to walk right past those signs. There is a one other valid sign in Texas called the 51% sign, but that only applies to prohibiting the public from carrying handguns on a premises that receives more than half of its income from serving customers alcohol.

It is still illegal for licensees to carry a handgun in Texas at a federal building, at a school, at a public sporting event, in a courthouse, at an election polling place or in a jail or prison, even if those places do not post any kind of sign prohibiting the carrying of a concealed weapon.