Company Fires All Employees Who Smoke

JudyT929 · January 2005

[url]http://www.channelcincinnati.com/news/4125477/detail.html[/url]

"Michigan firm won't allow smoking even on employees own time".

Now I just quit smoking 2 weeks ago and I don't want anyone to smoke, but it just doesn't seem that this should be legal. Does anyone think this is a good thing?

Parabeaglex2 · January 2005

It was a movement such as this a few years back that resulted in protection for smokers. Companies in Oregon cannot discriminate against an employee for the lawful off-duty use of tobacco products.

Of course if we don't want to hire a smoker, we can always find a nondiscriminatory reason not to.

Don D · January 2005

It'll be interesting. Where's the ACLU when you don't need them?

mwild31 · January 2005

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 01-25-05 AT 07:39PM (CST)[/font][br][br]I heard about this on the radio. I guess the people that were fired, were fired for not wanting to be tested - not because they were smokers. So, maybe they'll stand a chance in court...

I find it odd that the reason cited for this ban & further really, testing for nicotine in the body, is due to rising health care costs. This is odd to me because there are so many poor behaviors folks have that it seems unreasonable to single out this one vice. Poor eating habits, high cholesterol, obesity, not getting an annual exam, type A personalities, bad relationships, grabbing a drink after work or worse, drinking a lot after work all contribute to higher costs for medical insurance - not just smoking. Last summer was a really bad time for our company; we lost a long-term employee to prostate cancer. It was really tough. The guy didn't smoke, drank only occasionally, but he was an ornery, sourpuss (God bless his soul) with some cancer in his family history. When he was diagnosed, 2 1/2 years ago, it wasn't because he went in for an annual exam, it was because he thought he was having a recurring bout of carpel tunnel, was trying to reopen his claim & due to some symptoms he was describing, his doc took some blood work on a "well, let's just check it out basis". I don't really mind a company taking a stand on smoking and if the ee really wants to work there, then they either follow the rules or not, be tested or not, but I really don't like the next logical steps that this kind of thinking leads to: To avoid higher medical costs, we will no longer employ obese people. Obesity is defined as anyone 10 pounds over their ideal weight as classified by the federal government. Or, To avoid higher medical costs, we will no longer employ anyone with a family history of mental disease, heart disease or cancer. :-S

Hunter1 · January 2005

Like Oregon, WI has a law protecting the use of legal products off the job (smoker's protection law), with one exception: firefighters. Since we also have a law which presumes that any heart or lung disease which firefighters get is work related, the exception makes sense. We prohibit firefighters from smoking on or off the job.

Don D · January 2005

Wonder what kind of test you can give a person to determine if they are a cigarette smoker? A (lung) functional capacity test, which we give to certain employees, only indicates functionality concerns, not what might be their root cause. Reckon you'd open-wide in front of a German Shepherd?

TN HR · January 2005

Mouth swab which detects presence of nicotine. Also, blood tests will show trace amounts. Life insurers test this way when you apply for "Preferred Best Non-Tobacco" yet smoke two packs a day.

My older brother tried to get cute about 3 years ago while he was still on the off-and-on-I'm-trying-to-quit-phase and he "misrepresented" (read lied) the facts on a life insurance application. Needless to say he was summarily moved from best rates category to lard a** nicotine addict category.

JudyT929 · January 2005

This morning I heard on the radio that San Francisco is going to prohibit smoking even in all public parks! I agree smoking is bad, heck I think it should be an illegal drug, but as said above there are lots of people who risk their lives in other ways, eating too much, drinking, sun exposure, where will it end.

Whatever · January 2005

Because my mind works in strange ways (heaven help me, I trust opened myself up to all sorts of comments), I remember a song that started "I never smoked and I never gambled and I never drank at all until I met my two good amigos, nicotine and alcohol."
In any case, I'm now going crazy trying to remember who recorded this song. HELP!!!!

System · January 2005

I've heard it but don't know who it was. How about:

"Now I'm a fella with a heart of gold,
the ways of a gentleman, I been told -
The kind of guy who wouldn't even harm a flea.

But if me and a certain character met,
(the guy who invented the cigarette)
I'd murder that son of a gun in the first degree."

chorus -

Smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette.
puff, puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death,
Tell St. Peter at the golden gate that you hate to make him wait. But you just gotta have another cigarette.

Company Fires All Employees Who Smoke

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