Company demands workers give up smoking to keep jobs
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The Stop Smoking Hypnosis People
MARYSVILLE, Ohio - Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., looking for ways to hold down health insurance costs, will require workers who smoke to quit by October or lose their jobs.
The lawn and garden company wants workers to live healthy lifestyles, said James Hagedorn, the company's chairman and chief executive. Scotts recently opened a $5 million fitness and medical facility.
Scotts is joining other companies focusing on smokers to cut health insurance costs. Some companies make employees who smoke pay higher health insurance premiums, or don't hire them.
"Why would we admit someone into this environment when they're passing risk along to everyone else? Our view is we shouldn't and we won't," Hagedorn said.
Scotts, which made $100 million on sales of $2.3 billion in its last fiscal year, has 6,000 employees in the United States and overseas. It said it can fire smokers legally in 21 states.
"We're being as aggressive as the law will allow us, to keep our costs under control," Hagedorn said.
Scotts pays for 75 percent of employees' health insurance but won't say how much that runs.
The company also will require higher premiums for workers who refuse to take a health survey in 2006. In 2007, premiums will rise for workers who don't follow doctor recommendations to improve their health.
In a 2004 survey of 270 professionals, the Society for Human Resource Management found 4.4 percent preferred to not hire smokers. Fewer than 1 percent said their companies have a formal policy against hiring smokers.
This year, Okemos, Mich.-based Weyco Inc. began firing workers who smoke.
Scotts, based in this town 30 miles northwest of Columbus, is offering free counseling, nicotine patches and classes on quitting to workers who smoke. The company hasn't figure out how it will determine whether employees are in compliance, spokesman Jim King said.
Lewis Maltby, president of the New Jersey-based National Workrights Institute, a group working to expand human rights in the workplace, said he disagrees with the policy.
"What you do in your own home on your own time is none of your boss' business," Maltby said.
He acknowledges that smokers do generate higher medical costs, but employers can take steps, such as charging smokers more for health insurance.
www.iwanttoquitsmoking.com
The Stop Smoking Hypnosis People
Link
The Stop Smoking Hypnosis People
MARYSVILLE, Ohio - Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., looking for ways to hold down health insurance costs, will require workers who smoke to quit by October or lose their jobs.
The lawn and garden company wants workers to live healthy lifestyles, said James Hagedorn, the company's chairman and chief executive. Scotts recently opened a $5 million fitness and medical facility.
Scotts is joining other companies focusing on smokers to cut health insurance costs. Some companies make employees who smoke pay higher health insurance premiums, or don't hire them.
"Why would we admit someone into this environment when they're passing risk along to everyone else? Our view is we shouldn't and we won't," Hagedorn said.
Scotts, which made $100 million on sales of $2.3 billion in its last fiscal year, has 6,000 employees in the United States and overseas. It said it can fire smokers legally in 21 states.
"We're being as aggressive as the law will allow us, to keep our costs under control," Hagedorn said.
Scotts pays for 75 percent of employees' health insurance but won't say how much that runs.
The company also will require higher premiums for workers who refuse to take a health survey in 2006. In 2007, premiums will rise for workers who don't follow doctor recommendations to improve their health.
In a 2004 survey of 270 professionals, the Society for Human Resource Management found 4.4 percent preferred to not hire smokers. Fewer than 1 percent said their companies have a formal policy against hiring smokers.
This year, Okemos, Mich.-based Weyco Inc. began firing workers who smoke.
Scotts, based in this town 30 miles northwest of Columbus, is offering free counseling, nicotine patches and classes on quitting to workers who smoke. The company hasn't figure out how it will determine whether employees are in compliance, spokesman Jim King said.
Lewis Maltby, president of the New Jersey-based National Workrights Institute, a group working to expand human rights in the workplace, said he disagrees with the policy.
"What you do in your own home on your own time is none of your boss' business," Maltby said.
He acknowledges that smokers do generate higher medical costs, but employers can take steps, such as charging smokers more for health insurance.
www.iwanttoquitsmoking.com
The Stop Smoking Hypnosis People
Link
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