Gal Pal!
Posted on 05/14/2005 8:42:05 AM PDT by SheLion
Firing Smokers - Reading Beyond the Headlines
Trend: You smoke? You're fired!
May 11, 2005
By Stephanie Armour
More companies are taking action against employees who smoke off-duty, and, in an extreme trend that some call troubling, some are now firing or banning the hiring of workers who light up even on their own time.
The outright bans raise new questions about how far companies can go in regulating workers' behavior when they are off the clock. The crackdown is coming in part as a way to curb soaring health care costs, but critics say companies are violating workers' privacy rights. The zero-tolerance policies are coming as more companies adopt smoke-free workplaces.
•Weyco, a medical benefits provider based in Okemos, Mich., this year banned employees from smoking on their own time. Employees must submit to random tests that detect if someone has smoked. They must also agree to searches of briefcases, purses or other belongings if company officials suspect tobacco or other banned substances have been brought on-site. Those who smoke may be suspended or fired.
About 20 employees have quit smoking under the policy, and a handful were fired after they opted out of the testing. "The main goal is to elevate the health status of our employees," says Gary Climes, chief financial officer.
•At Investors Property Management in Seattle, smokers are not hired. Employees who smoked before the ban was passed about two years ago are not fired; however, they can't get medical insurance through the company.
•Alaska Airlines has a no-smoking policy for employees, and new hires must submit to a urine test to prove they're tobacco-free.
"The debate has gone from where they can smoke to whether they can smoke," says Marshall Tanick, a Minneapolis-based employment lawyer.
Such bans are not legal everywhere: More than 20 states have passed laws that bar companies from discriminating against workers for lifestyle decisions.
There are other ways that companies are taking action against off-duty smoking, such as raising health care premiums for smokers.
Employers say it's about creating a healthy workforce. But it's also a bottom-line issue: Tobacco causes more than 440,000 deaths annually and results in more than $75 billion in direct medical costs a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some smokers' rights groups are vowing legal action.
"These matters will be decided in the courts," says Redmond, Wash.-based Norman Kjono, with Forces, a smokers' rights group. "You're creating a class of unemployable citizens. It won't stand."
And legal experts fear companies will try to control other aspects of employees' off-duty lifestyle, a trend that is already happening. Some companies are firing, suspending or charging higher insurance premiums to workers who are overweight, have high cholesterol or participate in risky activities.
I'm sorry to hear that. I don't know where you live, but I have never encountered such disregard. I myself never throw a lit cigarette out of the window for fear of starting a grass fire.
Gal Pal!
Under this employment doctrine could employers demand genetic testing and fire or refuse to hire persons with genetic predispositions to cancer, depression etc.?
They are inconsiderate Aholes who have no consideration for you or anyone else.
If they didn't smoke, they would be on your sh!t list.
Point being, just because one smokes it doesn't make one inconsiderate or a litterer.
I am a perfect example.
I am only inconsiderate when I post at FR!
Under this employment doctrine could employers demand genetic testing and fire or refuse to hire persons with genetic predispositions to cancer, depression etc.?
I guess it could come to that, if this is indeed legal for the employee to do so.
It won't be long and no one will be fit to work if this keeps on going. Employers will not hire people for anything they think is physically wrong with them.
Like one poster said: what about the drinkers who come in to work with hang overs in the morning? I guess Weyco doesn't care about that.
My favorite I might add.
Shoot, there goes Silver again....
His wolf howl can be annoying at times.
Could you do me a favor and post a HI for Silver so I can contain him? ; )
I think he's jealous....
"In Arkansas, nearly 40 per cent of school kids are already overweight or headed that way. The state’s approach is to get into the schools with a scale and a measuring stick. "These days, every school kid in Arkansas gets a kind of 'fat grade' -- a measure of whether they are normal weight, overweight or at risk of becoming so.
" If BMI testing was supposed to put Arkansas on 'fat alert,' it has. But for some people, the plan has it hit a raw nerve. Almost a third of parents at Greenland refused to let their kids be weighed and measured."
Hi Silver!!!!!!!!!!!
Give him a hug for me!
I think more of us are experiencing government intrusion into our every day lives more and more.
Just the other day, a non-smoking card carrying member of Dirt First! and PETA threw spoiled tofu out his car window at me!
I refuse to defend those losers any more!
I never did, but what the hell.
Thank you for your patience; it took me a while.
Hiring smokers only for effect.
I love it!
Fakers will be shot.
The stress of loss of a job has as much of an adverse affect on health as smoking. Wanna bet that this NAZI company keeps the pressure (stress) up on it's employees to keep costs down.
Personally I happen to be against anti-discrimination laws for private employers, period.
That's a good one. And kudo's for you for sticking up for your rights. She had a lot of nerve! None of her damn business!
I don't smoke, and anytime any smoker I know wants to light up they always ask me if it will bother me. I don't particularly like the smell of cigarette smoke, but I like my friends and they like to smoke, so I don't leave when they smoke and I don't mind them smoking.
Listening to music above a certain level is not good for you. Maybe this comapny can forbid it's employees from going to rock concerts, or forbid them from owning powerful surround sound systems. Hey, and there was a news story the other day about iPods and mp3 devices not being healthy as people tend to listen to them a little loud.
That is also true.
BUMP!
I agree that for a company to go to such lengths would be pretty silly. Heck, I wouldn't want to work for - or patronize, for that matter - a business that stuck its nose so deeply into the personal lives of employees. But another law? No thank you.
"Why indeed did your premiums go up??"
Medical care costs including presciptions have gone up and up. The costs of prescriptions is outrageous. Back in the 91' I had an MIR done after I was in rollover accident for around $1500. Recently a friend of mine had one done that cost $13,000. Completely new machines for health care are being added to the doctor's arsenal which I'm sure are very expensive and I'm sure a doctor would not have outdated stuff. Now let's talk about malpractice insurance. The figure I have heard many times is a doctor pays 1/3 of what he takes in to pay for malpractice insurance. So he has to raise his prices and pass those costs on. Now the HMO's will pay this cost for the doctor but with increased fees for the coverage.
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