The reason that they do not fire current employees is called a “grandfather clause”. They especially cannot fire doctors, who are required to sign contracts, if that is not in their contract.

Most employees I know who work at the Clinic do not wish to smoke in front of patients, etc. They used to have protected areas that were not heavily traveled by patients or anyone in general. Very out of the way places. And there was a rule for at least the last 10 years that I know of, that NOBODY, employee or patient, was to be smoking within 30 feet of an entrance to a building.
Now, they have forced employees and patients/visitors alike to huddle in bus shelters, on streets behind parked cars and in other business’s parking lots to smoke. You can’t make people quit smoking, no matter how disgusting you think it is (or even they think it is)–it’s called personal freedom.

Smokers at some hospitals around here must pay higher insurance premiums. I have known smokers who said that they lied about this to get a cheaper premium. I have also known smokers who were hospitalized for cardiac disease that was related to their smoking.
Guess who is supporting the smokers who lie about their habit—the nonsmokers who must pay higher premiums overall.
I’d like to see a drug test for smoking included in all prehire drug tests.

Would you want a healthcare worker who was under the influence of pot working on you? Would you want a healthcare worker who was a smoker working on you if you were a diabetic? Would you want a healthcare worker who was unable to lift you try to lift you anyway? (Healthcare workers are usually tested for ability to lift a certain amount of weight.)

Healthcare workers are often required to uphold a certain standard of morality, ethics, and way of life because they are healthcare workers. If they fail to do so, they place their job at risk as well as their licenses, etc.

With all the negative health impacts of smoking and eating a poor diet it makes sense that healthcare workers should set an example.

Kind of going off topic–what is wrong with employers today? What happened to if you did your job right and worked hard you were set for life (or at least retirement)? It’s sad to see how far we have drifted from honoring our hard working Americans—instead now we are refusing to offer jobs just because we don’t agree with their private life-style. To say the least, I’m not angry at the situation, I’m just sad that America has come to this–which makes me wonder, why do we have so many immigrants still fighting to come to America for freedom?

But, my issue isn’t even with the smoking. It is wondering what will be next? Do we want to allow our employers to dictate what rules we must abide by in our own homes? Personally, I cannot stand being around smoke. I think all workplaces should become smoke free. And all employees made to abide by it. But, that is where it needs to stop.

Why not test people for alcoholism and not hire them? or if this actually happens, all the obese employees better watch out, becuase they might be next.

The at-will employment doctrine is and always has been the default. Smokers are not in a protected class, and employers have a right not to hire them.

There are rational reasons ad nauseum why an employer might wish to refuse employment to a smoker or all smokers. However, in matter of fact, they have a right to be irrational about it.

No one is obligated to hire a smoker, a nose=picker, and ugly-shoe wearer, a sky-diver, or a person with a disturbing laugh…and they can fire you because it is a Tuesday. Contract employees may have special rights, Unions may negotiate special rules or rights, but the default is you have no special rights to be hired or retained as an employee so long as the discrimination used by the employer is legal.

There is no way they would fire all the employees who already smoke and no way EVERYONE of them is giving up the habit, so to me it sounds discriminatory.

Smoking is not an illegal activity. It is a very unhealthy decision to smoke, but it is still legal. If employers can begin to dictate what LEAGL activities we can and cannot participate in, then where will it end? I don’t smoke and haven’t for a lot of years, but as far as I know it is still legal for those who chose to do so.

As for CCF, they have a mountain of problems that they might better spend time and energy correcting.

Employers have a lot of latitude in deciding what benefits they will provide and for who, under what circumstances. And since it’s employment-at-will, they can choose who they will and won’t hire, as long as it doesn’t involve race, sex, age, etc.

It may not be fair or moral, but it is legal.