Bluto Alert:
US businessman targets fat employees with slim or quit threat
Personnel Today ^ | 01/27/2005 | Dan Thomas
Posted on 01/27/2005 7:47:21 AM CST by Ace of Spades
The owner of a US company who forced his employees to quit smoking or leave their jobs has now said he also wants to tell fat workers to lose weight or else.
His ban on tobacco use, at home or in the workplace, led four employees to quit their jobs last week at Michigan-based Weyco, which handles insurance claims, reports Reuters.
The employees refused to take a mandatory urine test required of Weyco's 200 staff by founder and sole owner Howard Weyers, a demand he said was legal.
"If they don't want to take the test, they can leave," Weyers told Reuters. "I'm not controlling their lives; they have a choice whether they want to work here."
Overweight workers are next in the firing line for Weyers.
"We have to work on eating habits and getting people to exercise. But if you are obese, you are protected," he said.
He has brought in an eating disorder therapist to speak to workers, provided eating coaches, created a point system for employees to earn health-related $100 (£53) bonuses and plans to offer $45 (£24) vouchers for health club memberships.
Last year, Weyers banned smoking during office hours, then demanded smokers pay a monthly $50 (£27) "assessment," and finally instituted mandatory testing. Twenty workers quit smoking as a result.
We get $150 if we exercise 20 minutes a day for six weeks or so. I don't think Bluto ever signs up for that. He doesn't even walk up the stairs, but takes the elevator to the second floor. We also get $150 non-smoker rebate...
I'm a strong believer in the height-weight proportionate thing.
Boy, this guy is the quintessential liberal- I'll bet he even loves my kid (without knowing my son's name)!
Wonder if he'll pay employees not to use Viagra if new side effects are found in its use.
Looks to me like he's just begging for a discrimination lawsuit. This guy is over the top. Personally, I don't believe that a company has any right whatsoever to dictate, under threat of termination, what an employee does on his own time, as long as he's not doing it as a representative of the company.