3. No public employer shall take any action against an employee of the employer, including termination, because the employee or a dependent of the employee has obtained counseling, referrals or other services from an employee assistance program or has obtained treatment or other services from any program to which the employee assistance program refers the employee or dependent, unless the employee was referred by the employer to the employee assistance program due to issues related to job performance and fails to make a good faith effort to comply with the recommendations made by the employee assistance program. The provisions of this section shall not be construed as preventing the public employer from taking any action which the employer is otherwise authorized to take for workplace misconduct of the employee or poor work performance, even if the misconduct or poor performance is related to a problem for which the employee is obtaining services provided by an employee assistance program or other program to which the employee assistance program refers the employee.

L.2011, c.69, s.3.