http://research.lawyers.com/Oregon/Employment-Law-in-Oregon.html
Discriminatory Hiring Practices
Employment advertisements must be content-neutral. They may not discriminate against applicants based on personal characteristics such as race, sex, national origin, religion, or disability.
When interviewing job applicants, employers may not ask about national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital status, children, or arrest records, although asking about criminal convictions is permissible. A disabled person may be asked if he or she can perform the job with or without a reasonable accommodation.
So as an HR/Payroll professional (who is a smoker and who reports to an HR Director who is also a smoker), IMO and in my interpretation of the statutes, it would seem that they can ask you if you are a smoker or for that matter a recreational illegal drug or legal alcohol user and refuse to hire you based on those grounds alone unless you can claim that your smoking, drug or alcohol use is a protected disability under ADA and one that does not require unreasonable accommodations in order for you to perform your job.
Under these and most other state and federal non-discrimination rules with respect to hiring, an employer could also legally ask you if you engage in extreme sports, or dangerous activitites, i.e. snowboarding, motor cycling, skydiving, hunting, skeet shooting, etc. and refuse you employment based on those answers but then OTHO they cant ask you if you frequent S&M clubs or gay bars and they cant ask you if you engage in extra marital affairs if that is part of your sexual orientation. (eye roll)
But then I found this that may be relevant:
Does Oregon provide employees with protection from smoking-related discrimination?
An employer may not require that an employee refrain from lawful use of tobacco products during nonwork hours as a condition of employment, unless there is a genuine occupational requirement.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/workplace-smoking-laws-oregon-46922.html
If that fails, just say that your smoking tobacco is a big part of both your Native American heritage and your religion; hey if playing Indian Race card worked for Elizabeth Warren, why not for you?
1. Smoke breaks...you go off for a smoke break every hour and other non smokers watch you while they work...soon every one takes the 15 minutes break too...
2. My share of paying your health premiums...much more expensive
3. Smoker tend to sick more often...
4. The smell...
Welcome to Amerika.
If what you say is true then you have grounds to file discrimination charges against them. While they made the mistake of asking you if you smoke, they made an even bigger one in telling you they weren't going to hire you because of it.
Assuming that they would eventually give you a "pre-employment" physical and drug screen, it would have detected the nicotine in your body and they would have just moved on to another applicant and told you that they chose another candidate.
With that being said, forget about that employer because eventually they would have found out about your habit and made your life miserable......
As a side note, here are the proper steps any notable employer would likely take:
1. Application review
2. Applicant interview by HR dept
3. Secondary interview with department manager
4. Pre-employment physical and drug screen
5. Background check (usually reserved for managers and executives)
6. Actual job offer.......This should always be reserved for last because if a job was never offered, the job applicant can't claim they were denied it.......(it's a technicality that favors the employer)
When I was managing a business I used to try to avoid hiring smokers because I could never keep them working. I would find them smoking on the loading dock 20 minutes after they had just finished a coffee break. Nothing personal but I had enough of that nonsense.
Last summer a man told me to be alert and pay attention to the people God puts in my path. You may have just been visited by an angel. Pay attention.
If you are looking for work, how can you afford to smoke?
I quit 10+ years ago and could never afford it now even with my salary.
Listen: Yes, it sucks. What you experienced is a business faced with incredible threats to its bottom line due to health care regulations and consequent expense. Smokers' coverage is projected to increase this year by more than double. Hiring smokers adds to a business' expense. Filtering applicants by health choices is smart business.
As an individual your choice lost you a job.
Get smart. Take it on the chin and make some choices.
Apply for employment at Phillip-Morris, you won’t have any problems.
In the future, you might re-direct the question. “How would being a smoker impact my qualifications for this job?” Or, be more forceful-”I imagine that smoking in an office like this would not be considered healthy for employees”
Start your own business so that you can dictate the employment criteria and work rules. In other words, if you don’t like playing in their sandbox, then get your own.
I quit smoking in 1990. It wasn’t easy, but it was definitely worth it. Smoking comes with some shackles and chains, especially if you’re addicted to it.
Words you don’t want to hear: Quit smoking its bad for your health.
Employers choice. So?
Especially these days when you cannot smoke at your desk anymore due to no-smoking laws in office buildings and public places.
Despite being shamed into taking their habit out of doors, where they huddle in designated smoking areas, like derelicts in prison yards, these smokers continue to cling to their habits while their non-smoking co-workers keep working inside. The average smoker loses over an hour of productivity per day for smoking breaks. Is it any wonder employers would rather not hire people who smoke on the job?
Not to mention that they and their clothes smell like garbage cans and you'd rather walk three miles in the arctic tundra than to spend five minutes in the passenger seat of their cars.
This is not a "freedom" or a "rights" issue. People do have the freedom and the right to smoke. Just like we have the freedom and the right to cover ourselves in human excrement and wear our underwear on the outside of our pants. However, if I did that, I wouldn't expect anybody to hire me.
Do you believe that you’re entitled to a job?
I had this happen. My response was to get up, lean over her menacingly, then told her "I want the job so much, I am willing to kill you for it."
Then I paused, cocked my head a little, and added, "....but first, the rape."
Smoking is not a protected class under any law... so yes they can legally discriminate against you for smoking.