Via Steve Gilliard comes this:
Four workers in the United States have lost their jobs after refusing to take a test to see if they were smokers.
They were employees of Michigan-based healthcare firm Weyco, which introduced a policy banning its staff from smoking – even away from the workplace.
The firm says the ban is to keep health costs down and has helped 14 staff to stop smoking, but opponents say the move is a violation of workers’ rights.
. . .
Weyco gave its staff a stark ultimatum at the end of last year – either stop smoking completely on 1 January or leave their jobs.
I’m a non-smoker who thinks that everyone would be better off if they didn’t smoke. But I don’t think employers should be mandating this kind of lifestyle choice on employees outside the workplace.
If the employer wants to have a smoke-free workplace, that’s fine. I’m even okay with the employer charging employees extra to cover the higher health care costs. But at some point the employer’s control should end and employee’s rights should begin. And I think off-hours health choices which don’t affect work performance are in the latter.
As the article points out, if this is okay we don’t have to travel much farther down the slippery slope to the point where employers regulate employee’s diet, exercise, and sleep. Do we want to go there?
I agree with you completely.