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An employee's failure to declare medication he was taking for mental health issues denied his employer the opportunity to assess whether it posed any workplace risks, the Fair Work Commission has found in upholding his dismissal.

In February this year, the DP World Brisbane stevedore, who had worked for the employer for 19 years, underwent a random drug and alcohol test and returned a non-negative result for THC.

The employee was stood down pending a confirmation result, which found the presence of THC in his urine at a level of 635ug/l. This was 42-times higher than the 15ug/l cut-off prescribed by Australian Standards and 10-times higher than the "high range threshold" of 60ug/l in the employer's alcohol and other drugs (AOD) policy.

In a meeting a couple of weeks later, the employee disclosed he had been prescribed, and had been consuming, medicinal cannabis to manage mental health issues...