Wellness Programs : Wellness Programs – Smokers Beware.
In the last few years, there’s been a rising trend for public corporations – not just private companies – to ban smoking. Here’s what your coworkers are doing.
What’s New in Benefits and Compensation lately surveyed 374 of our readers from both the private and public sectors to find out their organization’s policy on authorizing personnel to smoke on-site and hiring smokers in the first place. Here is what we found –
• 11% have developed a policy of hiring only non-smokers
• 17% allow workers to smoke offsite, but ban it on all business property
• 39 percent restrict tobacco use to designated areas outside the building
• 30 percent allow smoking anywhere outside the building, and
• 3% allow tobacco use in break rooms or other indoor areas.
Public employers get aggressive
While much of the publicity about no-hire policies for smokers centers on private organizations, it’s actually public corporations in certain states who have been the most assertive of late.
For instance, Florida is one of the states at the forefront of the movement. Sarasota County lately became the third Florida county to take a no-hire stance for control healthcare costs.
New hires must take a drug test that detects nicotine and sign a pledge certifying that they haven’t smoked in the past 12 months.
The ban won’t affect current employees, but the county has undertaken use of tobacco cessation programs aimed at employees’ wallets.
Non-smokers pay less for coverage through various incentives and the county covers the cost of participating in smoking cessation programs.
The reason why Florida public employers can easily take these steps – the state supreme Supreme Court has ruled that refusing to hire smokers does not break discrimination laws.
But your state laws may vary, so proceed with caution before considering similar policies.