Smoking May Be Hazardous to Your Career Too
Four strikes and you’re out.
That’s Motorola Inc.’s new no-smoking policy at its cellular phone plants in Libertyville and Harvard, Ill.
The Schaumburg, Ill.-based company said beginning next month, it will fire anyone caught lighting up on company property after the fourth offense.
The ban applies to workers who smoke inside their own cars in the plants’ parking lots.
Some would argue the ban is “too paternalistic,” Martin Redish of Northwestern University’s School of Law said Tuesday.
Gary Hawkins, a 51-year-old Motorola cellular repair worker and four-time-a-day smoker, couldn’t agree more.
“They’re treating us like kindergartners, slapping our hands because we’re smoking,” Hawkins said. “Smoking is not illegal. They’re going to look pretty silly putting on my termination notice, ‘Smoking in own vehicle.’ ”
The company said the ban covers about 6,000 employees who have been offered stop-smoking programs. The goal is to promote health and reduce litter as well as “confrontations and parking lot incidents,” according to a spokesman, who would not elaborate.
While companies nationwide have smoking bans, Motorola’s is one of the most aggressive, the American Civil Liberties Union said. “This policy clearly goes too far,” said Valerie Phillips, spokeswoman for the ACLU of Illinois. Smoking in one’s car “doesn’t interfere with others. Employers should be concerned when employees’ actions affect their work performance.”
Workers can’t challenge the policy on constitutional grounds because Motorola is a private employer, Phillips said. But she said the civil rights advocacy group disagrees with the policy on moral grounds.
But John Banzhaf, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health, believes Motorola is fully within its rights.
“I can think of a dozen different things people might do in their cars that might be relaxing or stress-relieving that, if you did them, you could be fired over it,” Banzhaf said.
Motorola said smoking has been banned at the Libertyville site since 1991. The company said it decided to make clear how the ban would be enforced because it was misunderstood and disregarded.
