Employers Filter Out Applicants Who Smoke
By Cris Maher
From: The Wall Street Journal Online

Kick the habbit--or don't bother applying for the job.

That is the dictum at a growing number of companies that are adopting tough measures to eliminate smokers from their ranks in an effort to reign in health-care costs.Some are requiring job applicant to undergo nicotine testing or respond to questions about their smoking habbits.Others are forcing current emplyees who won't quit smoking to give up their jobs.

On Jan. 1, Weyco Inc., a small medical-benefits administrator, no longer will employ people who smoke at its Okemos, Mich., headquarters. Only nonsmokers will be considered for new openings, and current employees who are smokers and refuse to quit will have to leave.

Gary Climes, chief financial officer of Weyco, says the company notified its 200 employees about the new policy in the fall of 2003, and set up a smoking-cessation program to help smokers quit. "We've tried to counsel people to [quit and] stay, but there are some that are still trying to make those decisions," he says.

Such antismoking policies are problematic for companies with employees in states with smokers' rights laws. Twenty-nine states, including Illinois, have laws that prohibit employers from discriminating against smokers. As a result, Weyco will continue to employ one smoker in Illinois, even after its policy in Michigan goes into effect, Mr. Climes says.

Nevertheless, smokers increasingly face hiring hurdles even at companies that don't have formal antismoking policies. "There is discrimination at many companies -- and maybe even most companies -- against people who smoke," says Jay Whitehead, publisher of HRO Today, a magazine for human-resources executives.

Hiring managers who are instructed by their companies not to directly ask applicants about smoking (for fear of violating privacy rights) often discern smokers during interviews and reject them. Just because a question about smoking isn't asked directly "doesn't mean that hiring managers turn off their sense of smell," Mr. Whitehead says.

Investors Property Management Inc. in Seattle, began asking job applicants two years ago whether they smoked in an effort to eliminate candidates with the habit. Now, Dieter Benz, vice president of operations for the multifamily and commercial-property management company, says he is considering requiring applicants to undergo a blood test to prove they aren't smokers. "Even though all of our marketing materials indicate that we do not hire smokers, we still get people that are trying to slip in under the radar," he says.

Earlier this month, Mr. Benz fired a staffer after a burn hole in the upholstery of a company truck tipped him off that the individual was smoking, at least occasionally.

The company pays the complete cost of health-insurance premiums for its 14 employees. "In exchange for that you can't smoke," Mr. Benz says. The company makes one exception -- for a bookkeeper who has been employed since before the strict hiring policy took effect.

Some companies that employ smokers simply are charging them more for health-care coverage. And lying about one's habit can result in loss of health-care coverage or termination, says Richard A. Chaifetz, chairman and chief executive of ComPsych Corp., a Chicago employee-assistance and wellness provider.

Navistar International Corp., a Warrenville, Ill., truck manufacturer, will charge employees who smoke $50 per month more for their health-care coverage beginning next July.

Privacy-rights advocates and many smokers say companies are going too far in punishing employees for engaging in a legal activity. "It's crazy, because if you [smoke] in one context you're fine and in another you're not," says Dave Pickrell, founder of Smokers Fighting Discrimination, a nonprofit in Katy, Texas.

Also visit: Smoking v/s Employment

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