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An employer has failed to overturn a reinstatement order for an employee sacked for returning a positive cannabis test, with a Fair Work Commission full bench rejecting that the ruling cast doubt on the validity of workplace D&A policies more broadly.

It was open to the Deputy President to find the employer's practices gave rise to an "anomalous situation" – where the employee's test result was acceptable under on-site testing but unacceptable in a laboratory – but this shouldn't undermine employers' confidence in the Australian Standard, the bench said.

In March this year, Deputy President Tony Slevin heard that the Downer EDI Works Pty Ltd area supervisor had shared a cannabis joint at a dinner party on 22 August 2025.

Aware of the employer's zero-level drug and alcohol policy, he conducted a home test two nights later, and it returned a negative result for THC...