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Where There’s Smoke, It Wouldn’t Lead to Firing

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Times Staff Writer

A Michigan state lawmaker said Monday that he planned to introduce a bill to bar companies from firing employees for smoking on their own time.

The proposed “lifestyle legislation” comes in response to a policy at Weyco Inc., an employee benefits firm in Okemos, Mich., near Lansing. On Jan. 1, Weyco began randomly testing its 200 workers for nicotine use, saying it would fire those who tested positive and refused to quit smoking.

Four Weyco employees have said they were let go under the policy.

“Two of those employees are my constituents, and they came to me asking for help,” said state Sen. Virg Bernero, a Democrat from Lansing who plans to introduce his bill in the next three weeks.

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If passed, Michigan would become one of the few states with a law expressly stating that employers could not fire or refuse to hire people for engaging in legal activities on their own time.

“I don’t like smoking, but what this company is doing is just un-American,” Bernero said. “These are things happening off duty.... If it’s legal to fire someone for smoking at home, what’s next? A company that fires employees for having a couple beers during the Super Bowl because the boss is a teetotaler? Firing someone because they wear clothes on the weekend that the boss doesn’t like?”

In a statement released Monday, Weyco Chief Financial Officer Gary Climes said smoking was clearly a health hazard, and that Bernero’s legislation would make it more difficult for employers to control health costs.

“When you do something that is extremely harmful to both yourself and others, it’s not a privacy issue -- it’s a matter of exercising some personal responsibility for your behavior,” Climes said in the statement. “Michigan businesses, taxpayers and co-workers of smokers have the right to protect themselves from the horrendous damage caused by the self-destructive behavior of a small percentage of employees.”

Company officials said the policy was put into place to encourage healthful behavior among workers, as well as to underscore its health-conscious corporate culture. Inside the company’s headquarters is a framed, handwritten note from Thomas Edison to Henry Ford. Dated April 1914, it reads: “I employ no person who smokes.”

Weyco President Howard Weyers said last month that he also had rolled out the policy to combat the rising costs of employee benefits: “If I don’t do something to change employees’ demand for healthcare, I’ll never do anything about costs.”

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Weyers estimated the company spent $750,000 a year on employee health insurance premiums and said he was concerned that it wouldn’t be able to absorb additional increases.

But Anita Epolito -- one of the four fired workers -- said she had not been participating in Weyco’s insurance plan.

“I’m covered by my husband’s insurance policy, and have been for years,” said Epolito, 48, who worked as a receptionist and special events coordinator at Weyco for 14 years.

Epolito said Weyers first told employees about the policy during a benefits meeting in November 2003.

At the time, workers were told they couldn’t have any nicotine products in their bodies, she said. “There were some people who were trying to quit, using the patch or the chewing gum. We were told that if you’re going to quit, you have to stop -- and stop using those products -- by Jan. 1 [2005].”

Epolito said she approached Weyco executives shortly before the deadline and asked what she should do.

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“They told me to sign the waiver saying I refused to be tested so I could be given my final check,” Epolito said. “So that’s what I did.”

Michigan’s Kalamazoo Valley Community College instituted a similar policy last month, saying it wouldn’t hire smokers for full-time positions. School officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

Federal and state laws prevent employers from firing or refusing to hire workers because of race, religion or gender. Some states, such as Colorado, have enacted laws offering similar protections for smokers.

Colorado lifestyle-discrimination statutes are considered to be among the broadest in the nation, legal experts said. Workers cannot be fired for taking part in legal activities, unless those actions affect their work.

Bernero said his staff was using the Colorado law as a guide for the proposed Michigan legislation.

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