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We are back in San Juan, Puerto Rico for Day 2 of the American Bar Association’s Workplace and Occupational Safety and Health (WOSH) Committee Midwinter Meeting. Today’s sessions featured a diverse mix of experts—behavioral psychologists, management and employee-side attorneys, consultants, and industry representatives—discussing workplace violence, settlement strategies, drug and alcohol challenges, newly-proposed regulations, and broader organizational issues affecting OSHA practice.…

Continue Reading Report From Day 2 of the 2026 ABA OSH Law Conference

By: Adam R. Young, Jennifer L. Mora, and Frederick T. Smith

Seyfarth Synopsis: President Trump’s December 2025 Executive Order signals a possible shift in federal marijuana policy, but many employers still have a lawful and legitimate basis to prohibit impairment at work. Employers that test for marijuana should continue to monitor legal developments and evolving legal risk.

Continue Reading Marijuana Rescheduling: Should Employers Update Their Drug Testing Policies and Practices?

By Adam R. Young, Jennifer L. Mora, and Craig B. Simonsen

Seyfarth Synopsis: Across nationwide testing, marijuana positivity rates for 2022 reached 4.3% (up from 2.7% in 2017), with biggest gains found in states that legalized recreational marijuana. 

Impairment and related safety hazards have been disrupting the workplace resulting in lost time, absenteeism, safety hazards, and serious industrial…

Continue Reading High Times: Marijuana Positivity in Workplace Drug Tests Reaches 25-Year Record

By Jennifer L. Mora and Adam R. Young

Seyfarth Synopsis:  Employers considering a tolerant attitude towards recreational cannabis in the workplace should consider safety hazards and legal liabilities. 

In the heyday of the two-martini lunch, employers regularly tolerated alcohol in the workplace or employees presumably impaired by alcohol returning to work.  Over the succeeding decades, employers began to concentrate…
Continue Reading Weed at Work: Should Employers Expand “Alcohol at Work” to Cover Recreational Cannabis?

By Ilana R. Morady and James L. Curtis

Seyfarth Synopsis:  Effective January 1, 2020, Cal/OSHA is revising its injury reporting obligations to be more aligned with the injury reporting obligations under federal OSHA.

As most employers with California operations know, Cal/OSHA has unique injury/illness reporting requirements that differ from the Federal OSHA reporting requirements. These differences are important, and…
Continue Reading Changes to Cal/OSHA Reporting Requirements Go Into Effect January 1, 2020

By: James L. Curtis and Adam R. Young

Seyfarth Synopsis: The National Safety Council released a policy statement endorsing employer zero-tolerance policies for cannabis use for employees who work in safety-sensitive positions, explaining that no level of cannabis is safe.

Unlike a test for Blood Alcohol Content, testing results for Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) metabolites (the psychoactive components of cannabis)…
Continue Reading National Safety Council Endorses Zero Tolerance Prohibition on Cannabis/Marijuana for Safety-Sensitive Employees

By Frederick T. Smith and Adam R. Young

Seyfarth Synopsis:  On January 10, 2019 Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s Labor & Employment and Workplace Safety and Health Teams will present a webinar on OSHA’s New Standard Interpretation clarifying the requirements on workplace drug testing.

In 2016, federal OSHA called into question many common workplace drug testing policies that contained post-accident testing…
Continue Reading Webinar on Workplace Drug Testing: OSHA’s New Standard Interpretation that Clarifies the Requirements

By Joshua M. Henderson, Ilana R. Morady, James L. Curtis, and Craig B. Simonsen

Seyfarth Synopsis: On November 6, 2018, the California Office of Administrative Law approved Cal/OSHA’s emergency regulation for the electronic submission of CY 2017 Form 300A on Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.  Covered employers will be required to submit their Forms to Federal OSHA …
Continue Reading Emergency Regulation Approved! Electronic Submission of CY 2017 Form 300A Required by December 31, 2018 for California Employers

By Joshua M. Henderson, Ilana R. Morady, James L. Curtis, and Craig B. Simonsen

Seyfarth Synopsis: CalOSHA published a news release TODAY, on a new emergency regulation for the electronic submission of CY 2017 Form 300A on Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.  CalOSHA submitted the rule yesterday, and will allow public comments until Tuesday, October 30th, with …
Continue Reading Attention California Employers!  Cal/OSHA Issues Notice of Emergency Regulation for Electronic Submission of CY 2017 Form 300A by December 31, 2018

By Mark A. Lies, II,  Brent I. Clark, Adam R. Young, and Craig B. Simonsen

Seyfarth Synopsis:  OSHA has just issued a Standard Interpretation clarifying the Obama-era guidance that prohibited incentive programs and circumscribed post-incident drug testing;  “Clarification of OSHA’s Position on Workplace Safety Incentive Programs and Post-Incident Drug Testing Under 29 C.F.R. §1904.35(b)(1)(iv).”

We previously …
Continue Reading OSHA Clarifies Position on Lawful Post-Incident Drug Testing and Reverses Course on Safety Incentive Programs