Proposed personnel policy changes at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field would allow airport employees to be fired if they test positive for cannabis, even if they are registered with the state’s medical cannabis program, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. The voter-approved constitutional amendment does include language that provides for “safety-sensitive” positions to be subject to increased scrutiny.
“‘Safety-sensitive’ positions are those ‘designated in writing by an employer as a safety sensitive position in which a person performing the position while under the influence of marijuana may constitute a threat to health or safety,’ the law states.
At Clinton National, Arkansas’ largest airport, all employees are considered to hold “safety-sensitive” positions because they are permitted to access ramps, taxiways, runways and other parts of the airport where planes are active, said Airport Executive Director Ron Mathieu in the report. About 150 people are employed at the airport.
“It applies to everyone because everyone has an opportunity because of their level of security to go out to the airfield,” he said in an interview with the Democrat-Gazette. “If you have access to the airfield and you can be out there, you are in a ‘safety-sensitive’ position.”
The Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission has recommended adopting the policy.
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