Medicinal cannabis on construction sites
Testing from multiple directions — employer policy plus principal contractor site rules Last verified:
The risk profile
High-risk work, heavy plant, and testing regimes that arrive from multiple directions: your employer's policy, the principal contractor's site rules, and project or enterprise agreement provisions. Chronic pain from physical work makes construction one of the likelier industries for prescriptions - and one of the harder ones to hold them in.
What the cases say
Mills v Glamorgan Spring Bay Council (works crew, heavy machinery): disclosed cannabis but not THC - dismissal upheld despite an unblemished safety record. See the case tracker for full summaries.
If you work here
Your obligations may be set by the site, not just your employer - a principal contractor's induction and testing rules can be stricter than your own company's. Disclose to your employer in writing and ask explicitly how site rules apply to a disclosed prescription before you mobilise. The Worker’s Rights Kit ($39) contains the disclosure letter, prescriber question list and post-test checklist.
If you run the workplace
Subcontracting complicates everything: decide and document how disclosed prescriptions flow between employer and principal contractor without breaching privacy, and align your policy with the site regimes your crews actually work under. The Employer Policy Pack ($299) contains the policy template, disclosure form and risk assessment built for exactly this.