Pubdate: Fri, 01 Apr 2016
Source: Middletown Press, The (CT)
Copyright: 2016 The Middletown Press
Contact:  http://www.middletownpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/586

UNION: STATE SHOULDN'T HAVE FIRED MAN FOR SMOKING POT ON JOB

HARTFORD (AP) - The Connecticut Supreme Court is set to hear 
arguments Thursday on whether a state employee who was fired for 
smoking marijuana on the job was punished too harshly and should be reinstated.

Gregory Linhoff was fired from his maintenance job at the University 
of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington in 2012 after a police 
officer caught him smoking pot in a state vehicle. He had no previous 
disciplinary problems since being hired in 1998 and had received 
favorable job evaluations, according to his labor union. He was 
arrested, but the charges were later dismissed.

Linhoff appealed the discipline to an arbitrator, who ruled the 
firing was too extreme and Linhoff instead should be suspended 
without pay for six months and subjected to random drug and alcohol 
testing for one year. The arbitrator said that while state rules and 
policies on drug and alcohol use allow for firing first-time 
offenders like Linhoff, they do not mandate it.

The state appealed to a Superior Court judge, who overturned the 
arbitrator's award on the grounds that it violated Connecticut's 
public policy against marijuana use. Linhoff's union, the Connecticut 
Employees Union Independent SEIU, appealed the judge's ruling to the 
Supreme Court.

The state attorney general's office says a decision in favor of the 
union would send a worrisome message that the state tolerates drug 
use and other criminal activity by state workers on the job.

At the time Linhoff was fired, he was seeking treatment for 
depression, stress and anxiety because his wife had filed for divorce 
and he had a cancer scare, and he believed smoking pot helped to 
alleviate his worries, according to labor unions lawyer Barbara Collins.

Collins is arguing that Linhoff's conduct was not so egregious that 
he should be denied a second chance.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom