Thursday, March 3

The Columbus Dispatch - Editorials  

Employers may someday demand that workers drop unhealthy habits
Thursday, March 03, 2005
ROWLAND NETHAWAY

Smokers and fat people send U.S. jobs overseas. That’s scary, but bad health habits produce high labor costs that force some employers to move their operations overseas. Labor costs are much more than hourly wages, annual salaries or commission rates. They also include pension benefits and the costs of employee health care, which is going through the roof for many reasons, including the bad habits of employees.

One employer told me he sees the day coming when workers will be required to take care of their health if they want to keep their jobs. That means workers will not be permitted to smoke and must keep their weight within a safe range.

Smoking is a leading preventable cause of debilitating diseases and premature deaths in the United States. The government estimates that smoking causes approximately 400,000 preventable deaths each year.

Obesity also kills. The government reports that the United States is suffering from an obesity epidemic that extends from toddlers through adulthood.

Illnesses caused by smoking and obesity not only cost U.S. employers billions of dollars annually because of lost productivity, they also drive up the costs of employee health-care plans offered by employers.

This double whammy could cause employers to demand that their employees never smoke and that they stay in good physical condition. To keep their jobs, employees would have to submit to random nicotine tests and weight checks.

Workers would raise a stink if their bosses started dictating how they lived their lives when away from their offices or work sites.

Elected lawmakers would write legislation to prevent employers from enforcing off-the-job work rules.

Lawyers would have a field day suing employers for everything from invasion of privacy to cruel and unusual punishment.

That does not mean that employers would lose in a showdown over work-related health rules.

Employers should be able to show how illnesses and disabilities caused by smoking and obesity jeopardize the health of the company and the jobs of fellow employees who maintain healthy lifestyles. Employers would have a wealth of public and private research to demonstrate the health hazards of certain behaviors.

They also could argue the unfairness of forcing employers to keep on their payrolls workers whose lifestyle choices make them more expensive to employ than healthy workers.

At the very least, employers might be able to make a case that they should be able to determine if their workers are living unhealthy lifestyles and then charge them higher rates for their health-care premiums.

Courts already have given permission to employers to conduct drug tests of their employees. Some employers fought for the authority to conduct employee drug tests based on the arguments that drug users could present an unsafe work environment, become an unfair additional financial burden and simply be bad for business.

It’s not a stretch to use some of the same arguments and move from drug testing to nicotine and fat testing.

In 2003, a Michigan company, Weyco Inc., gave its employees a deadline to quit smoking. Employees were offered classes and support groups. Four employees refused to take the required nicotine tests and left the company.

A Michigan state senator is preparing legislation to prevent such employer actions against employees who smoke. Similar legislation to protect off-duty smokers is in force in several states.

That doesn’t mean smoker-protection laws can’t be overturned, particularly when lawmakers are confronted with accelerated job losses overseas due to surging health-care costs.

Rowland Nethaway is senior editor of the Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald.

rnethaway@wacotrib.com

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