Smokers need not apply...

[357]

http://www.mlive.com/business/index....y_2_detro.html

Beaumont and Henry Ford Health systems today announced they will screen job applicants for nicotine and will not hire smokers or anyone who uses tobacco products.

The two health systems are major players in the metro Detroit area, together employing more than 42,000 people spanning nine hospitals, several medical facilities and other lines of business.

Detroit-based Henry Ford and Royal Oak-based Beaumont have had tobacco-free campuses since 2007.

Starting Jan. 1, 2013, the systems will not hire anyone who fails a nicotine screening. Applicants can reapply after six months, said Jay Holden, Beaumont’s vice president of human resources.

"We just felt this was the next step to take in terms of being a role model for health and wellness in our community," Holden said.

The hiring policies don’t apply to current employees, but now they are no longer allowed to use tobacco or smell of smoke during the workday. Employees who violate the policies can be disciplined or lose their job. Tobacco products include but are not limited to cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, snuff, chewing tobacco and e-cigarettes.

The employers offer free smoking cessation programs to employees and their spouses or families, along with discounts on insurance and out-of-pocket health expenses to employees who don’t smoke or use tobacco.

Henry Ford CEO Nancy Schlichting said in a statement that the “health and well-being of our patients, employees and visitors is our top priority."

Nicotine-free hiring policies are a growing trend among hospitals a select other employers in an effort to cut down on employee health care costs while promoting a healthy lifestyle.

Detroit Medical Center announced its tobacco-free hiring policy in June. Sparrow Health System in Lansing, Oakwood Healthcare System in Dearborn, Crittenton Hospital in Rochester and Botsford Hospital in Farmington Hills also have similar policies.

Michigan is among 21 states that allow hiring policies that prohibit smokers and tobacco users. Twenty-nine states have laws that classify smokers as a protected class.

Opponents label the hiring policies as discrimination, saying that tobacco use doesn’t have direct implications on their job qualifications and that employers shouldn’t control what workers do on their own time.

I used to work for one of these health systems. Yes, those are my comments in at the bottom of the article linked above.

The concept is a fine line. Companies have the right to choose their own hiring guidlines outside race, sex, age for the most part. However, tobacco is a legal product. What's next on the list, alcohol, fast food, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity? Will they fire people bringing back Burger King for lunch or those with a salt shaker at their desk?

[357]

BTW, there is an exception for the "tobacco free campus" stuff. Mental health patients are exempt. At least they were when I worked there in '09.

[CRIMPS]

I still consider the use of cigarettes as being different from the use of cigars. I hate seeing them lumped together.

[hotreds]

Originally Posted by CRIMPS

I still consider the use of cigarettes as being different from the use of cigars. I hate seeing them lumped together.

Agreed!

[357]

Originally Posted by CRIMPS

I still consider the use of cigarettes as being different from the use of cigars. I hate seeing them lumped together.

Agreed, but this is all tobacco and E-Cigs too.

[jjirons69]

E-Cigs?? Really?? I guess the gum it OK. Whatever...

Our work insurance charges $20 a week on your health care premium if you're a smoker. We have to sign a form yearly stating we use or don't use. Lying = termination. The problem I have with the form is my family is on my plan, such as a lot of other family members, so who policies the spouses/grown kids no one ever sees?

[LockOut]

most police,ff,emt in fl are tobacco free. Saves them a ton on insurance costs etc. i bet 75-80% still use tobacco and just lie about it however.

[hotreds]

Originally Posted by LockOut

most police,ff,emt in fl are tobacco free. Saves them a ton on insurance costs etc. i bet 75-80% still use tobacco and just lie about it however.

My church did a support your local FD thing, and I brought along cigars. Was told they are not allowed to smoke, at the FD or at home. They were pretty unpleasant about it. Was surprised and miffed.

[Brian D.]

Originally Posted by hotreds

My church did a support your local FD thing, and I brought along cigars. Was told they are not allowed to smoke, at the FD or at home. They were pretty unpleasant about it. Was surprised and miffed.

Appreciate the efforts hotreds...next time you want to give cigars to firefighters ask me and I can probably help out with that..

[Ogre]

I agree, Whats next????

[357]

Yep. I smoked a cigar on my lunch break on property the last day allowed, 6/30/2007. It was my first and last cigar at work (at that company).

[Thrak]

If this was by the gov you'd have a point, but a non-gov company can set whatever policy they want... I do think it is stupid however.

At the job I just left we had to take yearly "health screenings" which including blood tests!! If you didnt score enough points, you got the highest rate... reasoning is, if you arent healthy you should pay more for your healthcare since you will use it more than someone who doesnt have a 'risky' lifestyle..

[icehog3]

Companies like those can SABBOD.

Rules rules rules.

[shilala]

It made me shake my head.
On a positive note, it's a good place for nicotine-free people to work together and exist in tobacco-free harmony. I can only imagine the rest of the list of petty rules that'd keep me from being able to work there.

[markem]

The healthcare industry, in general, is under a lot of pressure to "set an example" about healthy habits. Do not be surprised to find this at many healthcare related businesses. Many insurance companies are also on the band wagon with more all the time. We recently got switched to CIGNA and I did tell them about my cigar smoking. Fortunately, the company from which we get coverage has many ex-military who are serious about their cigarettes, so it didn't tip the bucket in any way.

It is their right to demand non-smoking personnel and it is your right to choose to keep smoking and work elsewhere. That's the free market. The fact that it is abutting up against the main thrust of this board means that all here are affected, but at the end of the day, it is a business decision based on economics and/or industry pressure.

If the primary thrust of this board was legalization of drugs, then we'd have this same conversation about a different provision of the hiring policy.

[icehog3]

My job prohibits tobacco use on duty. If they told me I couldn't smoke cigars off duty, I'd have an unpleasant retort.

[DPD6030]

Originally Posted by icehog3

My job prohibits tobacco use on duty. If they told me I couldn't smoke cigars off duty, I'd have an unpleasant retort.

Yes, I can imagine it this way, "Oh really? Here are my retirement papers".

[Subvet642]

As I am a Pagan (Druid, to be precise), if they tried to do that to me I'd just tell them that it was part of my religious practice. It worked for my life insurance.

[cjhalbrooks]

Since i have been to the Ford museum in Grand Rapids MI as a child and as a soldier pulling security for his funeral. I could have sworn that i have seen a pic of President Ford smoking. So of course i googled it "Gerald Ford, the last U.S. president to use tobacco on a regular basis, is an inveterate pipe smoker" I found this on Cigar aficionado. Kind of Ironic that you name your organizational after a man yet you take away from things the man did.

Clockwise from top left: AP; Henry Griffin/AP; AP; Mark Wilson/AP
Franklin D. Roosevelt smoked cigarettes, and John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton occasionally smoked cigars. Gerald R. Ford preferred a pipe.