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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.
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© 2005, by JFS Productions, Inc. Distributed by Creators Syndicate, Inc. |
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