OKEMOS, Mich. - A Michigan company's decision to dismiss workers who
smoke, even if it's on their own time, has privacy and workers' rights
advocates alarmed and is raising concerns about whether pizza boxes
and six packs are the next to go.

But four others who couldn't, or wouldn't, no longer
had jobs on Jan. 1.

"We had told them they had a choice," said Weyco Chief Financial Officer
Gary Climes. "We're not saying you can't smoke in your home. We just say
you can't smoke and work here."

Such policies basically say employers can tell workers how to live their
lives even in the privacy of their own homes, something they have no
business doing, said Lewis Maltby, president of The National Workrights
Institute in Princeton, N.J., a part of the American Civil Liberties Union until 2000.

"If a company said, 'We're going to cut down on our health care costs by
forbidding anyone from eating at McDonald's,' they could do it," he said.
"There are a thousand things about people's private lives that employers don't like for a thousand different reasons."

Former Weyco receptionist Cara Stiffler of Williamston, one of those who
found herself without a job Jan. 1, called Weyco's policy intrusive.

"I don't believe any employer should be able to come in and tell you what
you can do in your home," she said.

Some companies, while not going as far as Weyco, are trying to lower
their health care costs by refusing to hire any more smokers.

Union Pacific Corp., which has headquarters in Omaha, Neb., began
rejecting smokers' applications in Texas, Idaho, Tennessee, Arkansas,
Washington state, Arizona and parts of Kansas and Nebraska last year,
and hopes to add more states.

Public affairs director John Bromley said the company estimates it will save
$922 annually for each position it fills with a nonsmoker over one who
smokes. It hired 5,500 new workers last year and plans to hire 700 this
year. About a quarter of the company's 48,000 employees now smoke,
and Bromley said it's clear they cost the company more money.

"Looking at our safety records, (we know that) people who smoke seem
to have higher accident rates than nonsmokers," he said. "It's no secret
that people who smoke have more health issues than nonsmokers."

On Jan. 1, Kalamazoo Valley Community College stopped hiring smokers
for full-time positions at both its campuses. Part-time staffers who smoke
won't be hired for full-time jobs, and the 20 to 25 openings that occur
each year among the college's 365 full-time staff positions will go only to nonsmokers.

"Our No. 1 goal is to reduce our health claims," said Sandy Bohnet, vice
president for human resources. "So many diseases can be headed off if
people simply pay attention to their health care."

Twenty-eight states, including New Jersey, and the District of Columbia
protect workers who smoke, saying they can't be discriminated against
for that reason.

Michigan doesn't have such a law, but state Sen. Virg Bernaro has taken
up the cause of the former Weyco workers. He plans to introduce a bill
banning Michigan employers from firing or refusing to hire workers for legal
activities they enjoy on their own time that don't impinge on their work.

Weyco President Howard Weyers thinks Bernaro is on the wrong side,
especially because companies are wrestling with ever-higher health care
costs.

"We're doing everything we can . . . to get our staff healthier," Weyers
said, noting that his company reimburses workers for a portion of health
club costs, pays them bonuses for meeting fitness goals and offers fitness
classes and a walking trail at its Okemos office.

Employers' Right?

"Employers need help in this area. And I just don't think employers' hands
should be tied" on how to accomplish that, he said.

Chris Boyd, an 18-year Weyco employee, said she considered the no-
smoking policy drastic when Weyers first announced it. But she signed up
for a smoking cessation group a few months later.

"I wasn't about to put smoking ahead of my job," said Boyd, 37, of Haslett.
She had tried once before to break her 10-year, half-pack-a-day habit and
said she probably wouldn't have been able to quit if not for the new policy.

The Society for Human Resource Management in Arlington, Va., found only
one human resource manager among 270 surveyed nationally in December that had a formal policy against hiring smokers. About 4 percent said they
preferred not to hire smokers, and nearly 5 percent said they charge
smokers higher health care premiums, a policy Weyco put in place a year
ago.

Although few companies are copying Weyco's example, "a lot of people
are paying attention to this case because it's potentially the edge of a
very slippery slope," said Jen Jorgensen, a spokeswoman for the society.
"It has raised a lot of eyebrows."

Smoking Surcharges

Maltby said he doesn't have a problem with companies raising health
insurance premiums for employees who have unhealthy habits. But he
worries about what's next on employers' lists.

"If employers are going to make the smokers pay a surcharge, they might
as well make the deep-sea divers and the motorcycle riders and the Big
Mac eaters and the skiers pay a surcharge," he said. "Smoking, drinking,
junk food, lack of exercise, unsafe hobbies, unsafe sex — the list of things
many people do is endless."