SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 26 April 2024, Friday |

Amazon backs marijuana legalization, drops weed testing for some jobs

Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday that it supports a bill that would legalize cannabis on a federal level in the United States and that it would eliminate weed-testing requirements for some job applicants.

According to its consumer chief Dave Clark, the e-commerce company’s public policy team would be aggressively promoting The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (MORE Act), which wants to legalize marijuana at the federal level.

Amazon will also no longer screen its job applicants for marijuana use for any positions not regulated by the Department of Transportation, Clark added.

While many U.S. states have legalized marijuana use, employers have so far largely refused to work with the industry as cannabis is still a classified substance at the federal level.

“In the past, we’ve rejected people from working at Amazon if they tested positive for marijuana use, just like many other businesses,” Clark said. “However, given the direction state laws are go in the United States, we’ve reversed course.”

According to a Westlaw report, Amazon was struck with a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that the company was breaking a New York City law by testing applicants for jobs at local facilities for marijuana.

The company does not allow marijuana sales on its platform.

Amazon also said it is tweaking its worker productivity tracking tool, “Time off Task.”

“Starting today, we’re now averaging Time off Task over a longer period to ensure that there’s more signal and less noise—reinforcing the original intent of the program,” Clark said.

    Source:
  • Reuters