Anti-Smoking Policies

One way for employers to combat rising health insurance prices is to have a healthy work force.  As this is much easier said than done, there has been difficult finding a way to effectively (and legally) improve employee health.  The New York Times online has a blog post about employers punishing employees for smoking.

As the New York Times author points out, employers can punish employees for smoking and/or reward non-smokers; however, both avenues have their own pitfalls.  The Times recently ended its practice of fining smokers who were enrolled in the company's health care plan.  For more information see: 

www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/technology/26online.html?scp=1&sq=smoking+employees&st=nyt

Many of these new policies are in response to the recent case of Grusendorf v. City of Oklahoma City.   In that lawsuit, the City was sued over its anti-smoking policy, which resulted in a firefighter being terminated after allegedly smoking during his lunch break off site. The City's policy was ultimately upheld, which has emboldened companies to more aggressively pursue smoking policies.