
 |
|
Dec. 3, 2008
Steven Emerson: Yes, the terrorists are winning
Don Terry: Lifetime, no see
Dec. 2, 2008
Melanie Phillips: The Mumbai atrocity is a wake-up call for a frighteningly unprepared world
Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report: Strategic Motivations for the Mumbai Attack
Dec. 1, 2008
Max Freidlander, as told to Jacklyn C. Wadler: India Inkings
Mark Steyn: Whodunit!?
Nov. 28, 2008
Rabbi Ahron Rapps: An evil seed that didn't have to be
Melanie Phillips: Carpe diem --- or can we all relax now?
Nov. 26, 2008
Michael Feldberg: Meet the Orthodox Jew who laid groundwork for scientific development of ordnance that undergirds America's current world leadership
Andrea Simantov:
Shades of life
Nov. 25, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Getting Emotional For Influence
The Kosher Gourmet
by Ethel G. Hofman : Thanksiving feast!
Nov. 24, 2008
Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: 'I just Became a grandchild!'
Barry Rubin: Don't flatter your enemies, protect your friends
Nov. 21, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Money matters?
Caroline B. Glick:
Civilization walks the plank
Nov. 20, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bronfman's blindness
The Kosher Gourmet
By Linda Gassenheimer: Portobellos add a hearty flavor to pasta with pesto
Nov, 19, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Spread the wealth? Jewish tradition and income equality
Elliot B. Gertel:
'Mad Men': Tackling prejudices or reinforcing them?
Nov, 18, 2008
Dr. Debby Schwarz Hirschhorn: The End of the Age of Reason
Jonathan Tobin: Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster?
Nov, 17, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The End of the Age of Reason
Diana West: Gulling Americans into making terror legit?
Nov, 14, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The Power of Spiritual Inertia
Caroline B. Glick: The perils ahead
Nov, 13, 2008
Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: How Bush and Obama together could change the Middle East dynamic
The Kosher Gourmet
by JeanMarie Brownson: Sweet and savory, crispy and meltingly tender bestilla
Nov, 12, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Tyrannical Co-Workers
Michael Doyle: High Court to consider today donated monuments that may have religious messages in public parks
Nov, 11, 2008
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Will Obama stop government officials considering institutionalizing financial jihad?
Jonathan Tobin: They Will Decide Their Own Fate
Nov, 10, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: $8 billion, modern-day Tower of Babel being built?
Barry Rubin: A letter to the president-elect from a Middle East realist
Nov, 7, 2008
Rabbi Francis Nataf: Of Children and Immortality
Caroline B. Glick: Livni's Obama strategy
Nov, 6, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: How I tricked a classroom of apathetic students into grasping the fallacy of moral relativism
The Kosher Gourmet
By Gina Kim: Tips for making the perfect soup --- includes recipes
Nov, 5, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Destitute Debtors
Bruce Weinstein: 'Religulos': Bad title,even worse movie
Nov, 4, 2008
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law
Frida Ghitis: A surprise for Obama in the Middle East
Nov, 3, 2008
Jonathan Rosenblum: Who says Jews are Smart?
Jonathan Tobin:
Was He Wrong About Everything?
March 22, 2007
J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)
|
| |
Jewish World Review
April 20, 2005
/ 11 Nisan, 5765
The right not to employ someone
By
John Stossel
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's nice to hear Americans talk about privacy and fighting for
their rights. But sometimes I have to say: Do you know what you're talking
about?
In Okemos, Mich., a 71-year-old health nut named Howard Weyers
runs a health-care benefits company called Weyco. Weyers thinks his
employees should be healthy, too, so years ago, he hired an in-house private
trainer. Any employee who works with her and then meets certain exercise
goals earns a $110 bonus per month.
So far, so good. But then, in November 2003, Weyers made an
announcement that shocked his staff: "I'm introducing a smoking policy," he
said.
"You're not going to smoke if you work here. Period."
No smoking at work. No smoking at home. No nicotine patch or
nicotine gum. The company would do random tests and fire anyone with
nicotine in his system.
"Two hundred people in a room," Weyers recalls, "and they went
at me."
"I yelled out," said Anita Epolito, "'You can't do that to me,
it's against the law.'"
That's not true. In Michigan and 19 other states, employers have
the legal right to fire anyone, as long as they don't violate discrimination
laws (for age, gender, race, religion, disabilities, etc.).
Weyers gave his employees 15 months to quit smoking, and he
offered assistance to help.
Today, he calls the policy a success. Twenty Weyco employees who
smoked, stopped. Some of their spouses even quit.
But the four workers who didn't quit were fired, and they are
furious.
"I'm just thrown out because this person decided, one day, this
is what he wanted to do," said Epolito.
Virg Bernero, a Michigan state senator, wants to make such
firings illegal. He helped publicize the fired Weyco workers' complaint
in the process publicizing himself; he's expected to run for mayor of
Lansing this year and now he's introduced a bill to prohibit employers
from firing anyone for anything legal they do at home.
"What's it going to be tomorrow? That you['ve] got to lose a
certain number of pounds . . . in order to keep your job?" Just as the law
restricts discrimination on the basis of race or sex, he said, "we'll have
an amendment for legal activities, for privacy outside the workplace.
Because this goes too far."
Bernero's thinking is muddled. I think whether you smoke, get
fat or go skydiving should be your choice. I say "Give Me a Break" to
busybody politicians in New York and California who've banned smoking in
every bar and restaurant. But there's a big difference between government
banning things . . . and Howard Weyers doing it. We have only one
government. When government bans something, it bans it for everybody in its
jurisdiction. That's why the Bill of Rights limits government
power. But Weyco is just one company. Its employees have other
choices. There are other jobs available in Michigan.
Cara Stiffler has already found a "better" job but still told me
it should have been illegal for Weyers to fire her. "I want my children to
see that I stood up for my rights as an American. That's what . . . the men
are over fighting in Iraq for, is my freedom."
Give Me a Break. Freedom includes the right to quit your job,
but freedom also includes the right not to employ someone you don't want to
employ. No one forced Stiffler and Epolito to work for Weyco. But now, they
want to force Howard Weyers to employ smokers. He built the company. He owns
the company. What about his freedom?
I asked Epolito if she "owned her job." No, she said, but
"there's a relationship there."
There was a relationship, that's true. To put it simply, the
relationship was that Weyers thought employing Epolito was a good thing and
Epolito thought working for Weyco was a good thing. Weyers doesn't own
Epolito; she's entitled to pursue her happiness, not his, and if that means
smoking, that's her right. But Epolito doesn't own Weyers; he's entitled to
live by his values, not hers, and if that means not employing smokers,
that's his right. Government smoking bans take away
our freedom. But all Weyers did was exercise his.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
STOSSEL'S LATEST
Give Me a Break
Stossel explains how ambitious bureaucrats, intellectually lazy reporters, and greedy lawyers make your life worse even as they claim to protect your interests. Taking on such sacred cows as the FDA, the War on Drugs, and scaremongering environmental activists -- and backing up his trademark irreverence with careful reasoning and research -- he shows how the problems that government tries and fails to fix can be solved better by the extraordinary power of the free market. Sales help fund JWR.
|
JWR contributor John Stossel is co-anchor of ABC News' "20/20." To comment, please click here.
Archives
© 2005, by JFS Productions, Inc.
Distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc.
|
|

Mitch Albom
Michael Barone
Dave Barry
Tony Blankley
Andy Borowitz
David Broder
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Rod Dreher
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
John Fund
Frank J. Gaffney
Lloyd Garver
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
David Harsanyi
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Laura Ingraham
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
James Klurfeld
Ed Koch
Ch. Krauthammer
Jonathan Last
Michael Ledeen
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
The Medicine Men
Dick Morris
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Jonathan Rauch
Celia Rivenbark
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Pat Sajak
Debra J. Saunders
Culture Shlock
Roger Simon
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Jonathan Tobin
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
Lisa Benson
John Branch
Gary Brookins
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holber
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Ranan R. Lurie
Jimmy Margulies
Rick McKee
Michael Ramirez
Jeff Stahler
Danna Summers
John Trever
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters

How 2
Lori Borgman
The Savvy Consumer
Elder matters
Fixit
Dr. Peter Gott
Marybeth Hicks
GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
Richard Lederer
Tech Maven
Nutrition Myths
Bruce Williams
How Stuff Works
|