NEW JERSEY — A national cable installation company allegedly violated New Jersey’s disability law when it denied a job to a medical marijuana user, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
According to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, the state’s Division on Civil Rights (DCR) has issued a finding of probable cause in a case involving Prince Telecom LLC, which has New Jersey locations in Hillside and Ocean Township.
Prosecutors allege that Prince Telecom, a company that constructs and maintains telecommunications and cable systems, offered an applicant a job as a cable installation tech – pending a drug test.
Here’s what happened next, prosecutors said:
“The applicant presented his medical marijuana prescription card at the screening center, where he tested positive for cannabis. Prince Telecom rescinded its offer of employment five days later, citing the positive drug screen. The applicant responded by advising a human resources representative that he had a medical marijuana prescription for treating his disability. He also stated that ‘I believe there are protections afforded me under the law.’”
The representative didn’t respond, prosecutors said.
The jilted job applicant then allegedly made several attempts to work with the company to seek an accommodation that would allow him to perform the cable installation tech position. The company’s human resources director promised to reach out to him again, but did not, prosecutors said.
The problem? That’s a violation of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (LAD), prosecutors alleged:
“Under the LAD, an employer may not refuse to hire, terminate, or otherwise discriminate against an employee or applicant based on disability. Once an employer becomes aware that an employee or applicant has a disability, the employer must engage in an ‘interactive process’ with the employee to determine whether it can offer an accommodation. The employer must then make a reasonable accommodation unless it can show that an accommodation would impose an undue hardship on its business.”
Prince Telecom has asserted that giving the applicant an accommodation to its drug screening requirements would impose an “undue hardship” on its operations. However, the company could not provide any proof that it had worked with the applicant to determine what his cannabis-use needs were, and could not otherwise demonstrate that providing an accommodation would actually create an undue hardship, prosecutors said.
“Our laws provide strong protections against discrimination based on disability,” DCR director Sundeep Iyer said.
“Those protections mean that employers can’t discriminate against employees based on their treatment for a disability – including their use of marijuana to treat or alleviate the symptoms of a disability,” Iyer added.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office noted that a finding of probable cause is not a final adjudication on the merits of a case, adding that it only shows that the DCR has concluded its preliminary investigation and determined that sufficient evidence exists to “support a reasonable suspicion” the LAD has been violated.
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