The Las Vegas Review reported yesterday….
Caesars Entertainment Corp. has joined the ranks of companies that no longer screen job candidates for marijuana use as a condition of employment.
But that doesn’t mean the company has stopped all testing.
A company spokesman on Monday said the need for good workers coupled with the state’s recent legalization of recreational marijuana use has ended pre-employment testing for pot.
“A number of states have changed their laws and we felt we might be missing some good candidates because of the marijuana issue and we felt that pre-screening for marijuana was on the whole, counterproductive,” said Rich Broome, executive vice president of corporate communications and community affairs for Caesars. “If somebody is believed to be using or high at work, then we would continue to screen for marijuana and other drugs.”
Broome also said there are some driver jobs that would still require pre-employment screening for marijuana.
“There are certain jobs which there are U.S. Department of Transportation requirements that we’re mandated to pre-screen for marijuana,” he said. “So we’ll still screen for those.”
Several other casino companies in Southern Nevada did not immediately respond to requests for comments on whether they’d discontinue pre-employment screening for marijuana.
Caesars is among a number of companies that have ended the screening in a bid to find more qualified workers.
Nevada is one of nine states that have legalized cannabis for recreational use and one of 29 that permit the use of medical marijuana.
Thoran Towler, CEO of the Nevada Association of Employers, said the most common question from his 400 member executives is, “Where do I find employees?”
He estimates that roughly one-tenth of his group’s members have stopped testing for marijuana out of frustration.
