Hopefully the lawsuits will jam this up the companies back side.Four employees at a healthcare company based in Michigan were fired this week after they refused the firm's ultimatum to quit smoking. If the company, Weyco, survives any legal challenges, it will encourage a growing trend.
Polygraph test? Random testing for nicotine? What if you had a cigar the day before? Seem to recall that tobacco is a LEGAL product still.Many companies require workers to take breathalyser tests that detect traces of carbon monoxide in the lungs or else submit to urine tests to detect nicotine.
Last autumn the Union Pacific Corp, a transportation company based in Nebraska, stopped hiring smokers in seven states. The company said it had been forced to make the move because of rising healthcare costs.
The bill had increased by 10 per cent for each of the past three years, it said.
Weyco began random drug tests for nicotine at the beginning of this year and said it would fire workers who failed the test or refused to quit smoking.
In Florida, meanwhile, a sheriff's office is demanding that all job applicants who have a recent history of smoking pass a polygraph test proving they no longer smoke outside work.
And the argument on insurance costs doesn't make it. There are many people that do activities that have higher risks than hiding in the basement. Insurance pays for diseases related to obesity, for accidents while skiing. What level of intrusion into peoples private lives are going to be allowed because someone thinks it will cause insurance costs to go up? Looks like social engineering to me, and excused by the claim of insurance costs.
If this is allowed, what will be next? Firing people for being overweight? Or maybe because they ride a motorcycle or own firearms?
In a country where the citizens have so firmly told the government to mind their own business, why should there be any allowance for companies forcing control of our lives?
No comments:
Post a Comment