{"id":8837,"date":"2019-09-21T12:50:42","date_gmt":"2019-09-21T12:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/?p=3658549"},"modified":"2019-09-21T12:50:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-21T12:50:42","slug":"colorado-marijuana-companies-are-subject-to-federal-labor-laws-despite-being-illegal-court-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/colorado-marijuana-companies-are-subject-to-federal-labor-laws-despite-being-illegal-court-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado marijuana companies are subject to federal labor laws despite being illegal, court rules"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/colorado-marijuana-companies-are-subject-to-federal-labor-laws-despite-being-illegal-court-rules\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<div><img src=\"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/colorado-marijuana-companies-are-subject-to-federal-labor-laws-despite-being-illegal-court-rules.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.denverpost.com\/2019\/09\/21\/colorado-marijuana-overtime-pay-helix-kenney\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dp-news-marijuana+%28Denver+Post%3A+News%3A+Marijuana%29&amp;utm_content=Google+UK#comments-anchor\"><span class=\"spot-im-replies-count\" data-post-id=\"3658549\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A U.S. appeals court has ruled workers in Colorado\u2019s marijuana industry are subject to overtime pay rules and other federal labor protections even if the industry itself is federally\u00a0illegal.<\/p>\n<p>The case at issue deals with Robert Kenney, a former employee at Helix TCS, a company that provides security and other services to marijuana companies in Colorado. In 2017, Kenney sued Helix in U.S. District Court for refusing to pay him overtime when he was regularly worked more than 40 hours a week as a security guard for Helix\u2019s marijuana industry clients, an alleged violation of the U.S. Fair Labor Standards Act.<\/p>\n<p>Helix\u2019s attorneys moved to dismiss the case on the grounds that a federal court had no jurisdiction to hear the case \u201cbecause Colorado\u2019s recreational marijuana industry is in violation of the Controlled Substances Act,\u201d per case documents. The district court rejected that motion but a panel of judges for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit was tapped to review that denial.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday, that panel upheld the lower court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe district court correctly reasoned and case law has repeatedly confirmed that employers are not excused from complying with federal laws just because their business practices are federally prohibited,\u201d Senior Judge Stephanie Seymour wrote.<\/p>\n<p>Seymour went on to reason that denying employees in the marijuana industry federal labor protections would give their employers an unfair advantage and encourage other employers to engage in illegal activity to get around regulations.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s clear Colorado lawmakers already feel this way, according to Kristi Kelly, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group, the state\u2019s most prominent industry trade organization. When the legislature passed a new marijuana regulation sunset bill this year, it included a provision dictating companies comply with federal labor rules, Kelly said.<\/p>\n<p>While she can\u2019t speak for third-party companies like Helix, Kelly said, \u201cTypically what we see is businesses are exceeding federal requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The suit will now head back to the district court. Rex Burch, one of the attorneys representing Robert Kenney in the case, said he\u2019s heard from people in the marijuana industry that the court rulings add legitimacy to what they do.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re not special and, in my experience, most marijuana businesses aren\u2019t looking to be special,\u201d Burch said. \u201cThey\u2019re running like when you open up a business that sells anything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><\/div>\n<p>A company that provides security services to Colorado marijuana businesses is being sued by a former employee over overtime pay. The company&#8217;s argument it is exempt from federal labor laws because the marijuana industry is illegal didn&#8217;t past muster with a federal appeals court. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6811,6897,7456,6813,77,5667,9,5019,1,3,61,1736],"tags":[6816,6898,7460,6818,2655,5673,5022],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8837"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8837\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannitrol.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}