Weed lover’s hope to get job back go up in smoke

THE tendency by a former employee of Barloworld Equipment to roll a joint after work, despite her company’s zero-tolerance policy on drugs, cost her dearly.

The company had fired her, and the Labour Court, in a recent ruling, agreed that the dismissal was fair.

Bernadette Enever was dismissed on April 30, 2020, after she had worked for the company for a number of years as a category analyst, in an office or desk position.

While the company had a zerotolerance policy for the use of drugs and often tested its employees for this, Enever was not about to give up on her usage of cannabis after hours.

She maintained that her position at the company did not constitute a safetysensitive job in that she was neither required to operate heavy machinery nor drive any of the company’s vehicles.

Enever testified that some time ago, she suffered severe and constant migraine, as well as anxiety spells, which affected her general well-being as well as her sleep

As a result, she was prescribed medication by her general practitioner for pain and anxiety, which proved to have some side effects. She was earlier prescribed pharmaceutical drugs which required daily consumption of about 10 pills (including sleeping tablets) to ease pain and assist in falling asleep.

Following the Constitutional Court case which decriminalised the use of cannabis, especially in private spaces, she gradually moved away from consuming pharmaceutical pills.

She swopped these for cannabis oil and smoking rolled cannabis as an alternative to achieve the same results.

According to Enever, she also used cannabis recreationally by smoking rolled joints every evening to assist with insomnia and anxiety.

The company, on the other hand, said it had an alcohol and substance policy, which Enever was aware of and which required the employees to undergo medical tests.

In January 2020, she was subjected to a urine test. The test came back positive for cannabis. She was immediately placed on a seven-day “cleaning up process”.

When she again tested positive after the “cleaning-up” period, she was fired following a disciplinary hearing.

Enever’s hope to get her job back by turning to the Labour Court also went up in smoke.

Acting Judge MM Ntsoane said she was not convinced that Enever used cannabis for medical reasons, as she never submitted her doctor’s opinion in this regard. The judge said she also never discussed this with her employer and only raised her medical condition after she was caught.