In the last few years, there’s been a rising trend for public companys – not just private companies – to ban use of tobacco. Here is what your peers are doing.
What’s New in Benefits and Compensation recently surveyed 374 of our readers from both the private and public sectors to find out their organization’s policy on allowing workers to smoke onsite and hiring smokers in the first place. Here is what we found –
• 11 percent have created a policy of hiring only non-smokers
• 17 percent allow staff to smoke offsite, but ban it on all corporation property
• 39% restrict tobacco use to designated areas outside the building
• 30 percent allow use of tobacco anywhere outside the building, and
• 3 percent 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 that have been the most aggressive of late.
For example, Florida is among 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 personnel, but the county has undertaken tobacco use cessation programs aimed at employees’ wallets.
Non-smokers pay less for coverage through various incentives and the county covers the cost of participating in use of tobacco cessation programs.
The reason why Florida public employers have the ability to take these steps – the state supreme Supreme Court has ruled that refusing to hire smokers doesn’t break discrimination laws.
But your state laws may vary, so proceed with caution before considering similar policies.
