A federal arbitrator has ruled in favor of Air Canada in a legal dispute involving the testing of a flight attendant’s hair strand for potential marijuana use. The case highlights how every decision in employee drug testing must be carefully considered depending on particular conditions of each situation.
The employee (referred to as CB in the arbitrator’s decision) had called in sick in March of 2024, and Occupational Health Services determined they were fit to return to duty on April 17, 2024; however, before CB could return to his job as a flight attendant, Air Canada informed him he was being held out of service and he was directed to attend the Occupational Health Services Clinic for reasonable cause drug testing.
At the clinic, after some “unproductive exchanges” between union and Air Canada representatives about whether a hair strand test complied with the company’s policies, CB consented to provide a hair strand for lab testing.
