The new medical marijuana rules set to take effect in 2018 present interesting challenges for Ohio business owners and individual users. While medical marijuana use will soon be legal, it is important for individuals to understand that the law, as currently written, does not protect employees from employment matters related to its usage. For example, employers will not have to accommodate employees that use medical marijuana, can still make employment decisions (hiring, firing, and discipline) based upon marijuana use, and can still drug test employees.
Another important consideration is that marijuana, even for medicinal purposes, is still illegal under federal law. As the law is implemented in Ohio, medical marijuana is certain to present a wide variety of legal issues in the courts. Both individual users and employers will need to remain up to date on the law which will certainly evolve once implemented. This information is intended to provide broad, general information about the law and is not intended to be legal advice. Before applying this information to a specific legal problem, readers are urged to seek advice from a licensed attorney It is not often that you put together the words “Walmart” and “Good” with employee relations; however, a recent company policy appears to bring those two words together. Walmart, the largest public employer in the United States, recently announced the implementation of an app to allows its workers the ability to access a portion of their wages for hours they have already worked prior to payday. The ramifications of this change are huge because this policy will prevent many of employees from having to take “Payday Loans” and other debt traps to pay for essentials such as housing and food.
Payday Loans, and their astronomical annual percentage rates, hit Ohioans especially hard. The Pew Charitable Trusts published a 2016 Fact Sheet (available here www.pewtrusts.org) that provides that Ohio has the highest Payday Loan prices in the United States with an average annual percentage rate of 591%. Yes, that is not a typo. To discuss employment or consumer protection issues, contact Jesse Bowman at the law office of Alexander, Webb & Kinman (513-228-1100). |
Authors
Attorneys Jesse Bowman; Max Kinman; Chris Alexander: David Wagner Archives
February 2020
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