In the last few years, there’s been a rising trend for public businesss – not just private companies – to ban tobacco use. Here’s 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 permitting workers to smoke on-site and hiring smokers in the first place. Here’s what we found –
• 11% have created a policy of hiring only non-smokers
• 17% allow staff members to smoke offsite, but ban it on all corporation property
• 39% restrict tobacco use to designated areas outside the building
• 30% allow tobacco use anywhere outside the building, and
• 3% allow use of tobacco in break rooms or other indoor areas.
Public companys get aggressive
While much of the publicity about no-hire policies for smokers centers on private corporations, it’s actually public corporations in certain states who have been the most assertive of late.
For instance, Florida is one of the states at the forefront of the movement. Sarasota County lately became the third Florida county to take a no-hire stance in order to control health care 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 workers, but the county has undertaken smoking cessation programs aimed at employees’ wallets.
Non-smokers pay less for coverage through various incentives and the county covers the cost of participating in smoking cessation programs.
The reason why Florida public corporations are able 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.