Whether the NLRB remains in business or not, the plethora of traps that unwitting small businessmen and women can find themselves caught in shows no signs of shrinking. Here are a couple of issues to ponder. Under recent court rulings in both Connecticut and Massachusetts, employers may be sued for not making a reasonable accommodation for those using medical marijuana, even though federal law provides that using it is illegal. Our attorney friends at Murtha Cullina explain that in the Connecticut case, an employer rescinded a job offer to a woman prescribed medical marijuana to help her deal with her post-traumatic stress disorder. The court acknowledged the illegality of marijuana use under federal law, but pointed to the woman’s disability and the state prohibition on discriminating against a qualified patient’s use. The decision is not dissimilar from a case in Massachusetts brought to us by the Bennett Law Firm. In the case of Barbuto v. Advantage Sales & Marketing, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court ruled tha an employee fired for failing a drug test could bring an action against the employer for disability discrimination in not making a reasonable accommodation for the employee’s disability that required the medicinal marijuana. Out on the west coast, the California Labor Commissioner ruled against a Jack-in-the-Box franchisee in a case alleging misclassification of an employee. After an investigation, the franchise owner was found to have misclassified 40 employees as exempt from overtime and ordered to pay over $900,000 in unpaid wages, overtime, penalties and liquidated damages. And just last week, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper signed a new law creating an office within the North Carolina Industrial Commission specifically to investigate charges against companies for misclassifying employees. Not staying abreast of employment law is a risky proposition, and, in that vein, we found this Business Journal article on employment laws in New York especially informative.