[tabi] Re: smokers: the next group not hired
- From: "Allison and Chip Orange" <acorange@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2012 22:20:11 -0500
I'm concerned though that soon enough, if allowed to do this, they'll go
after anyone with any sort of pre-existing health condition which might cost
more (blindness due to diabetes, or a genetic condition, etc. for instance)?
They shouldn't be refusing to hire such people, or allowed to treat them any
differently; they should just perhaps be allowed to have them try to change
what is under their control (quit smoking or lose weight) with help from a
doctor; refusing to hire them is (again in my opinion), a violation of the
latest national health care laws, and a violation of the ADA (since
addiction is likely to be considered a disability).
If they're allowed to continue, then anyone who isn't the perfect employee
could be refused a job.
Chip
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Lynn Evans
> Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 9:00 PM
> To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [tabi] Re: smokers: the next group not hired
>
>
> why not hire the smokers with the understanding that they
> will be paying extra in health insurance. Then again the
> people who are over weight will be treated the same way. They
> are going after the people with the unhealthy lifestyles what
> ever that is.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Norine Labitzke" <norine@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 6:39 PM
> Subject: [tabi] Re: smokers: the next group not hired
>
>
> > Interesting. Norine
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:tabi-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
> > Behalf
> > Of Sila Miller
> > Sent: Sunday, January 08, 2012 3:52 PM
> > To: tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: [tabi] Re: smokers: the next group not hired
> >
> > What is this world coming to? Is this America? I guess that
> since, for the
> > most part, the ADA protects blind people they can't
> blatantly pick on us
> > anymore? Until we begin to risk radicalism we're going to
> just have to
> > swallow...
> > So many battles that need to be fought and so few people
> who are sick and
> > tired to fight them... What a crock...
> > No, I'm not a smoker but smokers sure do pay their share of
> taxes which
> > benefit us all!
> > Fed up and disgusted,
> > Sila
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Allison and Chip Orange" <acorange@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <tabi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Friday, January 06, 2012 8:25 PM
> > Subject: [tabi] smokers: the next group not hired
> >
> >
> >> Below is an article run in news papers across the country
> today. I'm
> >> wondering if non-smokers are cheaper as employees, then
> who else might be
> >> cheaper? non-disabled employees? Employees who aren't
> over-weight? I
> >> certainly hope this doesn't turn out to be legal.
> >>
> >> Chip
> >>
> >> ----------
> >>
> >>
> >> Workplaces ban not only smoking, but smokers themselves
> >> By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY
> >>
> >> Twenty-nine states and the District of Columbia have laws
> that protect
> >> smokers' rights
> >>
> >> More job-seekers are facing an added requirement: no
> smoking - at work or
> >> anytime.
> >> An increasing number of employers won't hire applicants
> whose urine tests
> >> positive for nicotine use, whether from cigarettes,
> smokeless tobacco or
> >> even patches.
> >>
> >> An increasing number of employers won't hire applicants
> whose urine tests
> >> positive
> >> for nicotine use, whether from cigarettes, smokeless
> tobacco or even
> >> patches.
> >> As bans on smoking sweep the
> >> USA
> >> , an increasing number of employers - primarily hospitals
> - are also
> >> imposing bans
> >> on smokers. They won't hire applicants whose urine tests
> positive for
> >> nicotine use,
> >> whether cigarettes, smokeless tobacco or even patches.
> >> Such tobacco-free hiring policies, designed to promote
> health and reduce
> >> insurance
> >> premiums, took effect this month at the Baylor Health Care
> System in
> >> Texas
> >> and will
> >> apply at the Hollywood Casino in Toledo, Ohio, when it
> opens this year.
> >> STORY:
> >> Humana won't hire smokers in Arizona
> >> "We have to walk the walk if we talk the talk," says Dave Fotsch of
> >> Idaho's
> >> Central
> >> District Health Department, which voted last month to stop hiring
> >> smokers.
> >> Each year, smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke causes 443,000
> >> premature
> >> deaths
> >> and costs the nation $193 billion in health bills and lost
> productivity,
> >> according
> >> to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The
> >> CDC
> >> says 19.3% of
> >> U.S.
> >> adults smoked last year, down from 42.4% in 1965.
> >> "We're trying to promote a complete culture of wellness,"
> says Marcy
> >> Marshall of
> >> the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pa., which begins its
> >> nicotine-free
> >> hiring
> >> next month. "We're not denying smokers their right to
> tobacco products.
> >> We're just
> >> choosing not to hire them."
> >> The policies stir outrage, even in the public health community.
> >> "These policies represent employment discrimination. It's a very
> >> dangerous
> >> precedent,"
> >> says Michael Siegel, a professor at Boston University's
> School of Public
> >> Health.
> >> He says the restrictions punish smokers rather than
> helping them quit.
> >> "What's next? Are you not going to hire overly-caffeinated
> people?" asks
> >> Nate Shelman,
> >> a smoker and Boise's KBOI radio talk show host whose
> listeners debated
> >> the
> >> topic
> >> last month. "I'm tired of people seeing smokers as an easy piñata."
> >> After several companies, including
> >> Alaska Airlines
> >> , adopted smoker-hiring bans a couple of decades ago, the tobacco
> >> industry
> >> and the
> >> American Civil Liberties Union
> >> lobbied for smoker rights. As a result, 29 states and the
> >> District of Columbia
> >> passed smoker-protection laws.
> >> Some laws exempt non-profit groups and the health care
> industry, and 21
> >> states have
> >> no rules against nicotine-free hiring.
> >> Federal laws allow nicotine-free hiring because they don't
> recognize
> >> smokers
> >> as a
> >> protected class, says Chris Kuzynski with the U.S. Equal Employment
> >> Opportunity Commission.
> >> There's no data on how many U.S. businesses won't hire
> smokers, but the
> >> trend appears
> >> strongest with hospitals, says Lewis Maltby, president of
> the National
> >> Workrights
> >> Institute, a non-profit offshoot of the
> >> ACLU
> >> that opposes the hiring bans.
> >> Many of the new policies expand on smoke-free workplace
> rules. At Bon
> >> Secours Virginia
> >> Health System, more than 300 employees have kicked the
> habit since its
> >> campuses went
> >> smoke-free in 2009, and one applicant did so since it
> began nicotine-free
> >> hiring
> >> Nov. 30, says administrative director Kim Coleman.
> >> The bottom line will benefit because health care costs for
> tobacco users
> >> are
> >> $3,000
> >> to $4,000 more each year than for non-smokers, says Bon
> Secours' Cindy
> >> Stutts. "There's
> >> also an impact on productivity," she says, because smokers
> take more
> >> breaks.
> >> Paul Billings of the American Lung Association says he's
> seen no data
> >> that
> >> prove
> >> nicotine-free hiring gets people to quit. He says
> cessation programs are
> >> a
> >> better
> >> bet. Still, his group won't hire smokers: "We're
> non-smoking exemplars."
> >>
> >> Check out the TABI resource web page at
> >> http://acorange.home.comcast.net/TABI
> >> and please make suggestions for new material.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> if you'd like to unsubscribe you can do so through the
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> >> interface, or by sending an email to the address
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> >
> > Check out the TABI resource web page at
> > http://acorange.home.comcast.net/TABI
> > and please make suggestions for new material.
> >
> >
> >
> > if you'd like to unsubscribe you can do so through the
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> > interface, or by sending an email to the address
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> >
> > Check out the TABI resource web page at
> > http://acorange.home.comcast.net/TABI
> > and please make suggestions for new material.
> >
> >
> >
> > if you'd like to unsubscribe you can do so through the
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> > interface, or by sending an email to the address
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>
> Check out the TABI resource web page at
> http://acorange.home.comcast.net/TABI
> and please make suggestions for new material.
>
>
>
> if you'd like to unsubscribe you can do so through the
> freelists.org web interface, or by sending an email to the
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> "unsubscribe" in the subject.
Check out the TABI resource web page at http://acorange.home.comcast.net/TABI
and please make suggestions for new material.
if you'd like to unsubscribe you can do so through the freelists.org web
interface, or by sending an email to the address tabi-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject.
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