A Whirlpool Corp. factory in Evansville, Indiana, has suspended 39 workers who signed insurance paperwork claiming they don’t use tobacco and then were seen smoking or chewing tobacco on company property. Now, some could be fired for lying.
Whirlpool, based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, uses financial incentives to encourage U.S. workers and their dependents to abstain from tobacco use, spokeswoman Jill Saletta said. The specifics vary according to location.
In Evansville, the 1,500-employee factory charges tobacco users an extra $500 in annual health insurance premiums. The refrigerator factory has levied the extra premium since 1996, and it depends on employees to honestly fill out forms. It doesn’t mandate blood tests to detect nicotine or trail employees outside work, Castrale said.
Management suspended the 39 employees Friday after they were spotted using either chewing tobacco on company property or taking a drag in one of the factory’s dozen shelters for outdoor smoking, Castrale said.
Being caught in a lie is the hook, folks.
They signed a “contract”. They lied, that is felony fraud. I say getting suspended is mild.
Smoking is a dangerous activity. I applaud the company for trying to help their employees with incentives to NOT smoke.
Shame on those caught lying. Sometimes life is a bitch.
What if they started after they signed the contract? It might not have been a lie at the time. Not that I believe them I’m just saying they could make the claim.
#1,
you cant CONTRACT personal freedoms..
do you know what would happen if I told my Work places that I had Epilepsy, NPS, heart murmur, and was born crippled…
I would NOT get any Insurance, EVEN tho it was taken from my PAY.
Like applying for a receptionist job, and noting on the application that you have done computer HARDWARE…MOST companies WONT hire you, they are afraid that you would Mess with there system.
#4==ECA–that’s exactly what a contract does do.
etc.
How does chewing the foul stuff impact on one’s health a opposed to smoking it?
#6
Same addictive chemicals
Same toxic chemicals
Increased chance of mouth cancer
Ruins teeth and tongue faster
Just to name a few
Zybch chewing tobacco can cause a variety of cancers of the mouth. That is how it impacts one’s health.
John S
#6 mouth cancer.
Not to worry the union will get their jobs back.
Next up, how much do you DRINK on any given day, now don’t lie. After that…..
I am a former smoker. I used to smoke a pack a day. I quit. I’ve not smoked for about 6 months. I sign a contract that says I don’t smoke.
Next week, after having a bad day, I decide that I cigarette would be nice. I bum a smoke off a buddy, and have a cigarette.
Was I lying when I signed that contract?
Or is corporate America getting to far into my face?
Note the article says the contract is for the employees and the dependents to “abstain” from using tobacco. That includes the time after the contract was signed.
And the contract doesn’t come without incentives. Basically, the company is “paying” the employees to not use tobacco in the form of reduced insurance premiums. Is that so wrong? By agreeing to abstain from tobacco use, and then not doing it, you are for all intents and purposes robbing the company. You’re fired!
As long as the company continues to pay the employees incentives like this, they can pretty much ask of them whatever they want (like having perfect attendance, exceeding their quotas, etc.).
As a business owner, myself, I can honestly say that insurance for employees is EXPENSIVE. I would offer this program but I use tobacco and I LIKE IT! 🙂
There’ll be more of this when the government is paying for health care.
MikeN (#13),
I think you are right. I swear some time ago here on Dvorak Uncensored there was an article where the UK was going to do something along these lines…
[This might be it. – ed.]
#11. You sign the contract (complete with health insurance… I imagine) and, if you decide to change the answers, you should tell. Period.
As for those who lied and perhaps fired… here’s an idea… tell the truth!
According to statistics smokers die much earlier than non-smokers, so why worry?
Ideally they should die just before going for retirement.
They pay taxes and insurances and retirement funds all their (short) life just to die without getting any of it back, isn’t it great news for all the non-smokers?
Let’em smoke as much as they want!
#11, OFTLO;
Depends on how the contract is worded.
Where I work (public university), the contract you sign asks whether you have ever used tobacco products.
But if you start after the contract is signed, you would be OK. I’m not sure if it states you have to change the contract immediately if the status changes. I do believe the tobacco form is the only insurance-related form employees can turn in year-round outside of the normal insurance change periods…
When an employer decides what you can and what you can not do outside of work, they have moved from employment to ownership.
#18 RSweeney, they do not decide what you do. You can choose to smoke or not. But if you smoke, the statistics say you are a higher risk. So instead of making the non-smokers pay more for your choice, the company is passing the higher cost to you. For cheaters frauds and scam artists, lieing to make/save a few bucks is no big deal.
#11 OhForTheLoveOf, # 15 rectagon has it right. If you quit, then sign a contract saying you did, and break that contract, you need to suffer the consequences.
I know how hard it is to quite. I had a 10 pipe a day habit. It took most of a year to quit. But 39 people did not just happen to light up once. It is all about greed and dishonesty.
#18 RSweeney, they do not decide what you do. You can choose to smoke or not. But if you smoke, the statistics say you are a higher risk. So instead of making the non-smokers pay more for your choice, the company is passing the higher cost to you. For cheaters frauds and scam artists, lieing to make/save a few bucks is no big deal.
#11 OhForTheLoveOf, # 15 rectagon has it right. If you quit, then sign a contract saying you did, and break that contract, you need to suffer the consequences.
I know how hard it is to quite. I had a 10 pipe a day habit. It took most of a year to quit. But 39 people did not just happen to light up once. It is all about greed dishonesty and lack of charictor.
#12 –
Hey Joe. Would you like a smoke?
I would Bob, but before I do, let me call the HR office and see what forms I have to fax in and what changes to my benefit package will be.
Employers aren’t doing employees any favors. Its a compensation package. Not a gift. I agree to bring my time, my experience, my education, my talent, and my sweat to this job and do this job for the employer. In exchange, the employer offers me this pay and these benefits.
This is an equitable exchange. Many companies today are looking to overstep these parameters enact a relationship based on servitude. That is not acceptable.
Do they owe me health insurance? If it is agreed upon at the time of hire, you are goddamn right they do.
At the core of my belief is this… I work so that I might live and enjoy my life. I do not live so that I can work. I give my employer everything I agreed to give them and they give me everything they agreed to give me. In my case, my employer and I are pretty happy.
These other guys, they are getting screwed. Sure they should quit smoking… but they didn’t and I contend that no one ever had the right to force them to change their personal lives in the first place.
I’m always amazed at how many people who are not in the privileged caste will trip all over themselves to defend the unconscionable arrogance the privileged caste exhibits.
#20 -“they do not decide what you do. You can choose to smoke or not. But if you smoke, the statistics say you are a higher risk. So instead of making the non-smokers pay more for your choice, the company is passing the higher cost to you. For cheaters frauds and scam artists, lieing to make/save a few bucks is no big deal.”
So, because gay men have a lower life expectancy (illness) and are more prone to catch AIDS a company can charge them higher premiums?
22–> Most insurance companies don’t cover pre-existing conditions.
So, considering it is a pre-existing genetic condition, possibly.
#23 – I never said a/g about a pre-exiting condition. Unless, you consider homosexuality condition.
Just like a smoker. They are dinging them BEFORE they have an illness stemming from that behavior.
Keep defending the corporation…
They will look favorably upon you when the finally buy the government outright and declare themselves your overlord.
24-> I do consider it a condition. It’s a genetic condition. It leaves the sufferer with a risk-taking attitude.
Most insurance companies won’t insure parachute jumpers so why should they insure people who knowingly endanger their lives in other ways.
Insurance is NOT a right. It is a service you buy. It costs more to repair a larger engine than a smaller engine. Should I complain and ask for the same price to overhaul my SUV’s engine that my next door neighbor paid to overhaul his little VW bug?
Risky behavior results in higher premiums.
25-> What makes you so sure I’m not in negotiations now 😉
#21, OFTLO,
Your post works up until the part where the company offered an incentive for people NOT to smoke. Those that took the money and stayed tobacco free played the game. Those that took the incentive money and didn’t stay tobacco free cheated the company.
Nobody, except Bush, likes a cheater.
Employees at some plants are exposed to insulation and other things that are cancer causing and nobody seems to care. It says so right on some of the boxes.There are many fans that blow this stuff through out the plants and people breath this all the time they work there.