Cannabis’ smell – it’s something you either love or hate. Few people have a neutral opinion of the pungent plant’s distinctive odors. The word “cannabis” comes from the Hebrew word kneh-bosm, which means “aromatic reed.”
When someone with a fragrance sensitivity asks for a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), cannabis industry employers should take the request seriously, even if an accommodation isn’t immediately apparent.
Fragrance sensitivity runs the gamut from mild, akin to seasonal allergies, to severe, setting off acute migraine headaches or asthma attacks. Small dispensary workplace adjustments may be all that is needed. But sometimes identifying a reasonable accommodation just isn’t workable, particularly when dealing with smelly cannabis.
ADA Coverage
Depending upon the underlying medical condition, a dispensary employee with a fragrance sensitivity may well have legal protections under the ADA. As a best practice, cannabis employers should seek to accommodate an employee who has fragrance sensitivity regardless of whether the symptoms rise to the level of a disability, as defined by the ADA.
That said, if someone is allergic to many different smells in the dispensary workplace, the employer may not be required to provide a smell-free workplace. That just simply may not be reasonable, but reasonable accommodations must be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Accommodation Options
The employer should always talk with the employee with fragrance sensitivity to try to identify a reasonable accommodation. The most common accommodation employees request is to ask co-workers who sit close to them to refrain from wearing any fragrance.
Other accommodation options may include:
- Moving the employee’s work location to an area with a closed door and a clean-air filter.
- Creating a fragrance-free zone or floor.
- Using unscented cleaning products.
- Creating a fragrance-free bathroom or break room.
- Allowing fresh-air breaks.
- Adopting a fragrance-free workplace policy.
- Allowing the employee to phone in for meetings with a higher likelihood of exposure to fragrances.
- Allowing the employee to telework.
Sometimes there is no reasonable accommodation, such as with a worker in the cannabis industry, retail, or food services environment that caters to the public.
Refusals to Comply
One of the biggest hurdles to accommodating employees with fragrant sensitivities can be dispensary co-workers who simply won’t stop wearing fragrances. Requiring that an entire cannabis dispensary or work area refrain from wearing any scents can lead to people refusing to comply.
Additionally, some dispensary employees might say that many of their grooming products are scented – not only perfume but deodorant, shampoo, conditioner, moisturizer, hairspray, as well as therapeutic products, such as Bengay or Vicks VapoRub.
An employer might be hard-pressed to enforce a no-fragrance zone if an employee continues to wear scented products. Moreover, moving the sensitive employee to an area isolated from others has been deemed by some courts as a failure to accommodate.
Even if a dispensary employer can get an agreement from employees in a particular area to agree to be scent-free, the employee with a fragrance sensitivity might still be exposed in other ways – because of employees from other dispensary departments or members of the public who visit their area.
It is often easiest to implement changes that are completely under the employer’s control, such as shutting off automatic scent dispensers, and to talk with dispensary co-workers to craft a solution that is feasible and that everyone buys into.
If it’s just one particular fragrance that someone has a severe allergy to, the employer might well be required to get rid of that particular smell in the workplace. Should a co-worker continue to wear a particular fragrance that causes a health problem, the dispensary employer may discipline the co-worker for insubordination.
However, employers should ensure that they are applying the fragrance-free policy or requests consistently to all fragrance-wearing employees to prevent claims of disparate-treatment discrimination, such as when an employer asks only women to refrain from wearing perfume but takes no action about men who wear cologne.
Cannabis Growing Trend
It has become increasingly common for employers to request that employees be mindful of their co-workers and not use strong fragrances in the workplace.
The worst thing that an employer can do is to ignore or brush off a dispensary employee’s request that something is done in the workplace because strong fragrances or certain types of fragrances can trigger adverse reactions.
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