Company fires all employees who smoke!

[Ted Striker]

This is absurd

Here is how is SHOULD have been handled:

1) All NEW HIARS should be told up front they cannot get a job if they are smokers

2) All EXISTING employees who were hired before this rule went into effect, should be given amnesty from this rule

3) Existing employees who are smokers should be given help to quit smoking if they ask for it.

But doing this AFTER THE FACT is BS.

I personally hate drugs, alcohol, and smoking.

But companies should help their employees kick the habit, not fire them.

It's their means of earning a living.

Nothing makes me more angry than stupid managers that take out cost cutting measures on their employees.

Stop offereing free coffee or something. Install energy saving light timers. But don't freaking punk on your own people.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

Smokers are always discriminated against beccause of this crap non smokers have against 2nd hand smoke. If all of the business fire all of their smoking employees their is gonna be a sh** load of ppl unemployed.

[Ted Striker]

That's a good point Mrs. T.


You know obesity is like just as costly on our healthcare system as smoking is. And in fact I would say probably more since it is widespread.

So what are we gonna do next, fire all the obese people?

Unforunatley that's not gonna work, we would have to start importing about 200 million foreign workers.

[Tuberski]

Mrs. T.? That makes me:




I PITY THE FOOL THAT FIRES ME FOR SMOKIN'!!!!!!

ACK!

[Mrs. Tuberski]

Course Im still forced to the dreaded smoking area in the basement next to the trash and in winter where its freezing cold to indulge in my nasty habit that makes most ppl go EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW get away like i have the plague or something.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

I must say this though In Texas the state is a right to work state. The company can fire you for not liking your t shirt color. But there is unemployment comp they have to pay for if they do that.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by rah
What I find funny is that most everyone hates or distrusts insurance companies, but have no problem believing this because they're not smokers.

So the whole thing stinks.

I am not an actuary, and I don't think you are. Therefore we don't have access to the actual stat data. Thus, we can't tell if they are right or not.

[Alexander's Horse]

smokers will just do what many do at home - pretend they gave up and become smoking fugitives

[Kaak]

• Medical costs attributable to smoking comprise
6 to 9% of the total national healthcare budget.8
• Every pack of cigarettes sold creates more than
$7 in medical care expenses and lost productivity.3
• For every smoker who quits, $1,623 is saved
annually in healthcare costs alone.9
• Smokers tend to have more hospital admissions,
take longer to recover from illness and injury,
have higher outpatient healthcare costs, and
have lower birthweight babies

http://www.wmitchell.edu/tobaccolaw/resources/HealthCare.pdf

ted---then how happy do you think the new workers are going to be when the old worders get to take 4 15 minute smoke breaks a day, and the new workers end up working 5 hours more each week???

[Alexander's Horse]

those breaks are work - non smokers are jealous of smoker networking

[MikeH]

In the UK smokers pay loads more in tax than they get back in healthcare:

Tobacco duty currently raises £8.1 billion, Mr Warburton said, citing figures from Gordon Brown's Budget. He calculated that a 15pc fall in the number of smokers would deprive the Government of £1.2 billion in duty, £300m in VAT and £300m in corporation tax based on an estimated fall in tobacco companies' profits.

Mr Warburton said: "The British Medical Association says that smoking-related illnesses cost the NHS £1.7 billion a year, so a 15pc reduction in smoking could save £250m, although this would take several years to feed through."

http://money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2004/11/23/cnban23.xml

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
smokers will just do what many do at home - pretend they gave up and become smoking fugitives

I think you missed this part :

Four employees of a health care company have been fired for refusing to take a test to determine whether they smoke cigarettes.

[Sprayber]

I love hearing smokers whine about being an oppressed group. Sort of makes up for the one idiot that hangs around and blows smoke when your tring to eat or simply breath. I love to see them huddled around a tree when the wind is blowing or its raining trying to get that one last puff in before they freeze to death. I mean it must be cool to be so dependent upon something that you would huddle around in zero weather because you can't go a freaking day without doing. And inhailing smoke is just the coolest. So many people run from a building that is full of smoke. What idiots they must be to pass on the chance of inhailing all that smoke. I say tripple the price of cigs and use the money for something good.

edit: forget about tripling it. They should raise it every year just to see how much a person is willing to pay for a pack. 5$ 10$ 15$ It could be fun.

[Starchild]

Just do what the UK does and annually increase the duty on packs of cigs. Like MikeH said, we gain far more than we spend (even though I do support an Ireland style ban on smoking in public).

At last check, packs of 20 were selling in the offy I worked at for £4.85. That's over $10 per pack.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Starchild
Just do what the UK does and annually increase the duty on packs of cigs. Like MikeH said, we gain far more than we spend (even though I do support an Ireland style ban on smoking in public).

At last check, packs of 20 were selling in the offy I worked at for £4.85. That's over $10 per pack.

Raise it more. I want to see how much a smoker is willing to pay for them.