MRTA Impact on the Workplace

Employees 21 years and older have the right to consume cannabis:

• During personal time outside of work hours
• Off the employer’s premises
• Without use of the employer’s equipment or other property

Employers can enforce policies and practices that prohibit an employee from engaging in cannabis use and take action related to the use of cannabis, under the following circumstances:

• Where an employer is required to do so by state or federal statute, regulation, ordinance, or other state or federal government mandate
• Where an employee is impaired by the use of cannabis while working and such impairment decreases or lessen the employee’s performance or interferes with a safe and healthy workplace
• Where the employer’s actions would require the employer to commit an act that would cause the employer to be in violation of federal law or would result in the loss of a federal contract or federal funding

New Yorkers who have a prior record of criminal convictions related to low amounts of cannabis possession before it was legalized will now have these records automatically suppressed (expunged) from their record.  These convictions will no longer appear on a background check when a person applies for a job, a loan or to get into college. The expunged conviction will not be found unless the person applies for a gun license or a job in law enforcement. For more information, visit the NYS Marijuana Criminal Record Expungement FAQs.

New York state employers are prohibited from testing for marijuana of prospective or existing employees except in very limited circumstances (i.e., testing required by law, possession, visible impairment).