Occupational safety and health: cannabis delivery employee.

The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act of 2016 (AUMA) , an initiative measure, authorizes a person who obtains a state license under AUMA to engage in commercial adult-use cannabis activity pursuant to that license and applicable local ordinances. The Medicinal and Adult-Use Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act (MAUCRSA) , among other things, consolidates the licensure and regulation of commercial medicinal and adult-use cannabis activities. MAUCRSA establishes the Department of Cannabis Control within the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency to administer the act. This bill would require a cannabis delivery employer, as defined, to develop, implement, and maintain specified driver safety protocols allowing a cannabis delivery employee, as defined, to not complete a delivery if the delivery would create a real and apparent hazard to the employee or fellow employees, providing for notification and documentation procedures relating to incomplete deliveries, and providing information relating to worker retaliation protections. The bill would impose various requirements on a cannabis delivery employer relating to access to the driver safety protocols, including requiring the employer to make the protocols available to the Department of Cannabis Control upon request. The bill would require a cannabis delivery employer to notify the department upon being notified or becoming aware of an attempted robbery, injury, or death in the course of a delivery. The bill would also require a cannabis delivery employer to ensure that containers used in the delivery of cannabis goods do not indicate that the delivery employee is carrying cannabis goods, as specified. Existing law prohibits an employee from being laid off or discharged for refusing to perform work in violation of prescribed safety standards, where the violation would create a real and apparent hazard to the employee or fellow employees. Existing law creates a cause of action for wages for the time an employee laid off or discharged for a refusal is without work as a result. Existing law authorizes an employee who believes they have been discharged or otherwise discriminated against in violation of that provision to file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner, as specified. This bill would create a rebuttable presumption that the cannabis delivery employer violates the above-described prohibition if the employer lays off, discharges, or subjects an employee to an adverse employment action within 90 days of the employee reporting or documenting an incomplete delivery or refusing to complete a delivery that would create a real and apparent hazard, as described above.