Posted on 06/30/2013 4:32:19 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
With just days to go before two of Philadelphia's most prestigious hospitals refuse to hire smokers, the ban has relit a debate about the wisdom of regulating workers' behavior away from the workplace.
Both the highly rated University of Pennsylvania Health System, which includes the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, named by US News and World Report as America's top children's hospital this year, will join dozens of hospitals across the country when they implement their policy on Monday, July 1.
The move has generated criticism among civil liberties activists, hospital employees and even doctors who fear that smokers will lie about their habit - and therefore become less likely to seek help in stopping it.
"It's not all slopes that are slippery, but this one really is," said Lewis Maltby, a former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who now runs the National Workrights Institute in Princeton, N.J. He is critical of an employer's intrusion into the private time of employees.
"What you do in your own home on your own time is none of your boss's business unless it affects your work," he said.
Maltby noted that drinking alcohol, eating lots of junk food and not exercising are also bad for you. "Virtually everything you do in your private life affects your health," he said, wondering what other kinds of hiring restrictions could come to pass.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Hospitals should ban hiring anyone that does not eat a government approved diet.
Smokers also pay a higher premium for life insurance.
Welcome to the new prohibition.
I volunteer at a hospital. There’s an inner open ait atriem , which is reserved for smokers. Hospital employees have their job unit on their scrubs. It is just bizarre to see RESPIRATORY THERAPISTS puffing away madly..
I worked at a large hospital for 20 years.It had a no smoking policy and,as a result,you'd see a few folks outside...summer or winter...smoking away.But at my hospital almost none of *my* coworkers smoked...it was mainly the lower echelon workers who did.
Thanks for the ping!
That's off the table now...
Obesity is now classified as a disease.
Not PC to differentiate weight ...don't even think about not hiring a 'diseased' obese person - that's discrimination.
;>)
Great post. There are surely more we can add to the list of ‘do not hire’. It’s become a real challenge to figure out how all these pieces are supposed to fall together.
Also, Civil Rights Violation in that Smokers are being treated Un-Equally under the 14th Amendment, which is yet ANOTHER violation of their civil rights.
After all, we can't discriminate against Sex Deviates (fags and dykes), but yet we can discriminate against Smokers?
How "fair" is this?
So they all should be charged more according to your standards.
So after you dissect everyone's lifestyle, who gets charged less?
And then there's the people who smell third hand smoke, triple charge them!
and it began with , we are just going to put this little warning label on the package.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/everyday_economics/2003/08/why_do_gays_smoke_so_much.html
What are they going to do with the sodomites?
Unfortunately, there are too few business/entrepreneurs vs. low-info voters to tell gov’t to PISS OFF.
This is the same that will happen w/ O’Care; when all the employers dump their coverage for the exchanges. And I will smile with glee on what they have allowed to happen to themselves....poor bastards.
Not go down this path? We’ve been down this path for quite a few years....licenses, taxes, regulations, fines, EEOC, OSHA, etc. Yeah, benefits were their fault...gov’t compounded the problem w/ 3rd party pay, tax benefits for employer. Just look at the smoking/carry bans, like gov’t OWNED the business to make choices FOR them!
At least re: hiring, the employer/business has EVERY right to whom they wish, and why. I, on the other had, have the ability to (not) patronize said business as well.
“,giving smokers fewer sick days.”
—
Huh? That makes absolutely no sense.
.
Cool! I broke several ribs in several places in my upper back last August and could not escape from the hospital for love nor money.
Although I hope nothing like that ever happens again, now I know about a possible escape mechanism.
These people are Nazis.
Nothing.
That is a socially-acceptable vice.
I remember when you could smoke in hospital rooms.
Last time I was in the hospital there was still a smoking area in the cafeteria area and I had a whole stable of smoking nurses who were more than happy to wheel me down for a smoke.
Some lifestyles are managed, some are allowed to thrive. There’s no logic to it as the homosexual lifestyle is as deadly as smoking.
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