Re: Work in Michigan, Get Fired, Or fined?....
- From: "Paul M. Cook" <pmBERMUDA_SHORTScook@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 19:24:28 GMT
"N8NOE" <N8NOE@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1134470021.690069.206870@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Weyco Announces Plan to Charge Employees if their Spouses
> Smoke
> December 9, 2005
> By Michael Siegel
>
> In a CNN interview broadcast online yesterday, the president of Okemos,
> Michigan-based Weyco, Inc. announced his plan to implement a $1,000
> charge for employees who report that their spouses smoke. Weyco reached
> national fame earlier this year when it implemented a policy by which
> any employees who smoke were given one year to quit, or be fired. Three
> employees who failed to quit smoking were indeed fired earlier this
> year.
>
> According to the interview, employees are not only asked whether they
> smoke, but Breathalyzer-type tests are administered to confirm that
> they do not smoke.
>
> It appears that the reporter was jokingly asking if Weyco would begin
> requiring spouses of employees not to smoke, and he was quite surprised
> when the Weyco president responded: "Yes." He explained that such
> employees would not be fired, but that they would be assessed a $1,000
> penalty for their spouse smoking.
>
> The Rest of the Story
>
> This is absolutely insane.
>
> I have already condemned the policy of firing employees who smoke or
> not hiring smokers as a policy, but even for those anti-smoking groups
> or advocates who support those policies, this has got to be viewed as
> being ridiculously inappropriate.
>
> Now, we are not only going to interfere with the privacy of
> individual's lawful, off-the-job behavior but we are going to interfere
> into the personal lives of their spouses.
>
> I think it will be interesting to see if anti-smoking groups come out
> and condemn this degree of intrusion into individual privacy.
>
> Given the extent of employment discrimination and privacy intrusion
> against smokers that is going on (see yesterday's post about the WHO's
> policy of no longer hiring smokers), I have come to the decision that,
> despite my extreme reluctance to support a legislative approach to
> regulate employment policies, it is now necessary to intervene to
> protect these types of unwarranted intrusions into individual
> employee's privacy and this extent of employment discrimination.
>
> For this reason, I now actively support SB381, legislation introduced
> into the Michigan legislature by state Senator Verg Bernero, which
> would prevent employers from making off-the-job legal behavior a
> condition of employment, except in cases where that behavior directly
> affects job performance or relates to the mission of a company. That
> bill has been stalled in committee, but I hope that the WHO story and
> the continuing Weyco saga bring it out for active debate.
>
> And I hope that anti-smoking groups in Michigan will either support
> that legislation, or unequivocally condemn the policies of Weyco, which
> represent exactly the kind of employment discrimination that we have
> worked for decades to try to prevent.
It's enough to turn ya into a democrat, I tell ya! Activist republicans -
as I live and breathe. hahahahaha
I mean this is a slippery slope. Next thing ya know we'll be slinking back
to communism by enforcing overtime pay, mandating worker-safety, having a
liveable minimum wage, pensions that actually have money in them, sick days
off, vacations - the list goes on.
Paul
.
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- Work in Michigan, Get Fired, Or fined?....
- From: N8NOE
- Work in Michigan, Get Fired, Or fined?....
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