Posted on 01/24/2005 6:01:07 PM PST by Eurotwit
Michigan Firm Won't Allow Smoking, Even On Employee's Own Time
LANSING, Mich. -- A Michigan health care company has fired four of its employees for refusing to take a test to determine whether they smoke cigarettes.
The company enacted a new policy this month, allowing workers to be fired if they smoke, even if the smoking takes place after-hours, or at home.
The founder of Weyco Inc. said the company doesn't want to pay the higher health care costs associated with smoking.
An official of the company -- which administers health benefits -- estimated that 18 to 20 of its 200 employees were smokers when the policy was first announced in 2003. As many as 14 of them quit smoking before the policy went into effect.
I just read through it. Wow...There are some wacky freepers out there.
Different title though. Ask the mod to delete if you want...
I am going to have a smoke.
Cheers.
Smokers are not a protected class. Gays, who have a much reduced and costly lifespan due to aids and other sexuallly related diseases are protected.
Nah, I'll let it go. They'll delete it if need be. Have one for me, wouldja? LOL
BTW. This kind of crap, makes me take another look at government anti-discrimination laws.
The President held a great speech about liberty the other day.
This isn't it.
Wouldn't that be a thread policeperson?
Tell that to the nanny-staters. I'm surprised how many turn up around here on these kinds of threads.
People get some odd ideas about what liberty really is, I guess. Even I get confused from time to time, to be fair. :)
Ah, yes. You're quite right, of course. Now the PC police are REALLY gonna be after me! LOL
All they need is a doctor's permission to smoke medical nicotine.....
Is this pronounced WACO as in Janet Reno or Wacko as in Michael Jackson...?
At what point do we stop letting insurance actuaries stop running our lives?
Name of this company please? What do they sell or what "service" do they provide?
(Besides terminal delusional contol of others, that is.)
The world is insane. Smoke one cigarette and they don't want to pay your health insurance. BUT get AIDS because you take an action which you know can kill you, and the company will cheerfully pay for your health insurance.
I know - this company is owned by NYC mayor Mike Bloomberg!
That's gotta be it.
Guess this doesn't apply to Employees. U Of Mich insurer
Liberty works both ways.
The owners of the company should be at liberty to hire and fire who they please. It is their company after all.
You mean after all the years of having Americans pee in a cup for employment, its spreading to other vices? I'm shocked. Shocked I tell you!
I agree with you.
Or, rather, I still agree with you, but if companies start to act like fascists I might reconsider.
Then, perhaps government has a role to preserve individual liberty on the expense of business owners. I am not sure, but stories like this make me want to give this issue a serious look.
I am no longer a teenage libertarian.
You don't pee in a cup to discover whether you had a glass of wine with dinner the night before. Last time I checked, smoking a cigarette in your own home was legal.
Looks like four lucky people just came into a windfall. Question is: will they fire their former boss when they buy the company?
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