Can an employer request employees not take prescription medications onto jobsite location
Very short (useless) answer: YES.
Longer (more useful) answer: please keep reading.
I think that there is no law in any country, preventing an employee take some doctor prescribed medicine during work hours.
However, some conditions / restrictions may apply:
- some medicine can cause sleepiness, dizziness, or can affect the ability to perform safe work in other ways; in this case, the issue must be discussed clearly with the doctor and with the employer, prior to starting the treatment;
- some containers can damage the work area - e.g. a newly painted product prepared for sale;
- the content of the medicine can contaminate the substances around; especially important in medical / chemical environments;
So if the employer has a rule about the medicine, then you need to discuss it openly with the said employer.
The desired outcome of the discussion:
- if the medication is compatible with the work being performed;
- if the container is compatible with the work area;
- if the substance of the medicine is compatible with the work area;
As a result, you need to reach a common agreement about:
- where to store the medicine you are supposed to take during the work;
- which is the designated area where you can take the said medicine, to not cause problems.
You need to clarify with the employer that keeping medicine in the car is not advisable under any conditions. Please read about this, and other considerations below.
I assume you do not have to take the medicine more than 2-3 times during a work day / shift. There are containers especially for organizing the pills intake during the day, you can find them in pharmacies, and in many shops carrying medical accessories.
You can use such container, with the appropriate labels: after lunch, at 3 pm, before going home, ... or whatever suits. You do the proper organization at home, and when the time comes for the pill, you just take the respective dose.
NOTE: many (most? all?) medicine is temperature sensitive. Especially during the summer, keeping the pills in a car parked under the hot sun is a definite NO. Other medicine is frost sensitive - danger during the winter.
Note: any small tube / box can fit the needs. E.g., the empty tubes from medicine you took in the past. Recycling / reusing also means ecological responsibility.
This is one such container:
