Disclosure, Privacy and Employee Rights

‘Employers can seek necessary and proportionate information about fitness, safety or adjustments, but not automatically an employee’s entire medical history. In practice, an occupational health opinion is often more appropriate than handing medical records to a manager.’ – Rupa Shah

A collaborative approach

With this dynamic in mind, where practical, transparency on behalf of both the employer and employee is key. 

Cannabis Health has previously advised patients to be open with an employer early, and expect to be treated fairly in return. However, currently this often does not happen in practice. 

According to union representatives brought in to help patients when this approach has failed, workplace representatives themselves frequently lack confidence in the legal and clinical detail needed to support a member through disclosure, meaning many patients navigate the conversation with limited institutional backing beyond Releaf Protect.

One practical tool has emerged to close part of that gap. Releaf issues patients a physical medical cannabis card carrying a scannable QR code that verifies an active prescription against CQC-registered clinic records, letting a patient prove their status to an employer or landlord without producing or explaining a full FP10 prescription. ]

Access to the underlying record is approval-based, so the patient, not the employer, decides what gets shared. The Home Office has not formally endorsed the card, but Releaf has worked with police liaison officers to build awareness around it. 

Confidentiality in practice

As this information is particularly sensitive, both parties should be mindful of what is necessary to disclose for the purposes of the workplace, and how that information is handled within the company. 

‘Information should be restricted to those who genuinely need it, and used only for the stated purpose. A manager will generally need to know the practical restriction or adjustment, not every detail of the employee’s diagnosis.

‘We have learnt from Releaf Protect that patients worry about dismissal, drug testing and sensitive information being circulated around their workplace. Many employment calls to Releaf Protect arise before disclosure because the patient fears the employer’s reaction more than any effect of the medicine.’ – Rupa Shah

Where disputes can start

While transparency and disclosure can lead to workplace disputes, it is more common that withholding information is the flash point where issues occur. 

‘Disputes often begin when treatment is discovered through testing or an incident rather than a planned conversation. Employers then react to the word cannabis before verifying the prescription or assessing actual risk.’ – Rupa Shah

As discussed in Chapter One, this is often not a fault on the part of either party. It can be attributed to a policy and awareness vacuum that leaves managers improvising under pressure, with no set guidelines or available route for the conversation to happen on the employee’s terms. 

Without this, both parties are forced to address the issue following a test result or incident, by default framing the exchange in negative or disciplinary terms.