Where does the role of employer begin and end as it pertains to both current and potential employees? That’s the question which needs to be answered concerning recent decisions made by businesses to penalize employees for health reasons. All across the country, there’s an increase of employer’s penalizing employees for health related concerns, most notably – smokers. Some are even going so far as to not even hire nicotine users.

The idea of penalization, or denial of employment for health reasons inevitably leads to two camps: those who see unhealthy practices as a liability, and those who think it’s not an employer’s business what someone does concerning their health.

A field where the debate of health is really heating up is at hospitals. Today, an Eastern Pennsylvania hospital announced it would no longer be hiring smokers. The initiative was started by a health network which the hospital is a part of. The hope is that by excluding smokers from being potential hires that they will improve the health of employees while cutting healthcare costs.

Bob Zimmel, St. Luke’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources states his claim as to why this was a good decision, “While some may view this as a bold move, our organization feels strongly that promoting a healthier workplace benefits everyone.”

Other hospitals have taken a lighter stance, as they’ve instituted 100% smoke free grounds but it doesn’t go beyond that.

Executive Director of Human Resources Brian Altschuler gives reasons for the ban, “We’re not going to come down on them and we’re trying to reinforce the positive.
We know you may have a slip here or there and we’ll work with you.”

Interesting enough there have been zero resignations due to the policy, and their ‘want ads’ state the facilities are smoke-free. But there’s no discrimination against potential smokers.

Going beyond hospitals, employers are using health benefit penalties as a means to curb smoking. A Hewitt Associate’s survey shows a rise in penalties based on people smoking.

The survey polled 600 employers, and 47% plan to utilize financial penalties over the next 3 to 5 years for those who abstain from health programs, many based around smoking. Of the types of unhealthy behavior which they plan to penalize, 64% state smoking would be the unhealthy habit they plan to go after.

As health premiums and plans rise in cost, there will undoubtedly be more cases arising regarding health in the workplace. The problem going forward will be deciding what employers should be allowed to control in regard to an employee’s health.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 1st, 2010 at 8:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About the Author: John is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest ebusiness news.