Cigarette Then No Job ??

MSNBC:"As health insurance costs continue to climb, companies are urging employees to curb unhealthy behavior like smoking. Also sometimes refusing to hire smokers at all! Will Big Mac lovers be next? Weyco may be one of the only large companies in the country that can boast not only a smoke-free workplace, but a smoke-free workforce. Achieving that status, however, didn't come without a lot of effort and controversy. When he let go 4- employees after they refused to stop smoking. Civil-rights activists accused the company of discrimination, arguing that Weyers was punishing workers for engaging in a legal activity on their own time. Weyers claimed that he gave his employees plenty of notice and opportunities and incentives to quit, to decide which is most important: my job or tobacco? Says Weyers. Most companies already ban tobacco use in the workplace and more than a half dozen states and hundreds of cities have enacted laws to the same effect. Growing number of companies are refusing to hire people who smoke, even if they do so on their own time and nowhere near their jobs. An estimated 6,000 Employers no longer hire smokers, according to the National Workrights Institute, an affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union. From Sheriff's Department's to Ace Hardware stores to College's. Employers in several industries and states are telling smokers they need not apply. Even large corporations like Union Pacific have tightened restrictions. Last fall, the railroad company announced a no-smoking policy anywhere on its properties, including rail yards and train stations. If a job applicants indicate's they are a smoker, their automatically rejected, says Union Pacific spokesman John Bromley. Weyco began monthly tobacco testing and charged a $50-a-month fee to workers who tested positive or declined to be tested. Those who were identified as nonsmokers in the test were exempt from paying the fee. If smoking can be used as a potential criterion for hiring or terminating employees, not only do you create a class of people no longer employable but, more importantly, you start down a very slippery slope, says Jeremy Gruber, legal director of the National Workrights Institute. There's very little we do in our private lives that doesn't affect our health or productivity. What's next? Are employers going to start choosing what you eat off the job? And the four former Weyco workers have since enlisted the help of state senator Virg Bernero, who has indicated he will introduce legislation to prevent employers from discriminating against people who smoke. That focus has led to some concerns that overweight workers could also find their jobs at risk. If there's no state statute in place, says Kevin Zwetsch, a labor employment lawyer in Florida, there's nothing unlawful about an employer saying if you want to work for me, you can't eat Big Macs. I know we all have been told that smoking is bad for your health, but. I also thought that America was called the land of the free! Freedom to choose? Okay so these big-wigs are saying they now longer pick-up one of those Natsy - Stinky - Cigars to smoke when their buddies are handing them out at the club? Ya right!!"