The decriminalisation of cannabis for private use does not include the workplace, a Johannesburg Labour Court judge has ruled.

GroundUp reports that Judge Connie Prinsloo, in a recent ruling, said submissions by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) that the Constitutional Court had ruled that cannabis was no longer a ‘drug’ but just a ‘plant or a herb’ were wrong.

She said the Constitutional Court ‘Prince’ judgment in 2018 did not offer any protection to employees against disciplinary action should they contravene company policies or disciplinary codes.

She said the apex court had not said cannabis was no longer a drug, as the union had argued, but had merely allowed for its personal consumption, in private, by adults.

The case before Prinsloo was a review of the dismissal of two PFG Building Glass employees in October 2020 who had tested positive for cannabis while on duty.

The National Bargaining Council for the Chemical Industry had found their dismissal to be fair.

The union said it was unfair since cannabis was not a drug according to the Constitutional Court.

The company, through its witnesses, presented evidence that being under the influence of alcohol or drugs within the workplace was an offence for which dismissal was the prescribed sanction for the first offence.

On-site, there was gas, large forklifts, extremely hot processes and dangerous chemicals used to make heavy glass which could potentially cut or crush someone.

Prinsloo said it was evident that the union and the employees had confused issues relating to the decriminalisation of the use of cannabis in private and the rights of employers to take disciplinary action against an employee who contravened a disciplinary code.

The company was entitled to set its own standards of conduct and dismissal was an appropriate sanction, she said, dismissing the review.

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Judgment