Employer Fires Smokers... Even If They Only Smoke at Home

I find this turn of events very disturbing. A Lansing, Michigan company has decided to fire all of its employees who smoke, even if the smoking is done on personal time or personal places. The rationale is that smokers drive up health costs for the rest of the company.

The company enacted a new policy this month, allowing workers to be fired if they smoke, even if the smoking takes place after-hours, or at home. The founder of Weyco Inc. said the company doesn't want to pay the higher health care costs associated with smoking. An official of the company -- which administers health benefits -- estimated that 18 to 20 of its 200 employees were smokers when the policy was first announced in 2003. As many as 14 of them quit smoking before the policy went into effect.

Now, you won't find many folks out there who hate smoking more than I do. I support smoking bans in restaurants, bars, and public places. I am glad that smoking has been banned on airplane flights. But this is something far different. It is not that it is illegal - it is a private company which can make its own rules. But how moral is it to penalize people for taking part in an entirely legal act in the privacy of their own homes? How long until an environmentally-conscious company starts firing employees for owning SUVs or even for not driving electric cars?