Smoking and workplace laws ensnaring HR

HR Magazine, June, 2004 by Diane Cadrain

On April 2, when Idaho added its name to the growing list of states barring smoking in most workplaces (the others are Florida, California, Delaware, New York and Connecticut), an emerging trend took on new vigor--and the challenge to HR increased. As employers strive to comply with the quickly rising number of smoke-free laws and to cut the costs associated with employing smokers, they're also being squeezed by laws in over half the states that bar them from discriminating against people who use tobacco or other "lawful products."

Kimball Physics, a manufacturer of scientific instruments in Wilton, N.H., with a workforce of about 40, complies with the state law by prohibiting not only the use and possession of tobacco in company buildings but also "tobacco-residuals emitting persons." Anyone--employee, visitor or customer--who has used a tobacco product within the previous two hours is automatically turned away.

"The two-hour rule is there because smokers are buried in a could. They don't smell it," said company President Chuck Crawford.

One visitor emerged from his car with a lighted cigarette and snuffed it out on the doorstep; he turned out to be an inspector from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Crawford dealt with him outdoors, as he does with other smokers, and their discussion about the tobacco policy brought out a confession from the inspector: "He said it was a dirty habit, and he had been wanting to quit anyway," said Crawford.

The policy originated among Kimball employees, who created and adopted it in 1992 and revisited it with a unanimous vote in 1998, Crawford said. The only complaint he has received is from employees who feel that the policy is not enforced strongly enough.

In Vermont, Don Mayer, CEO of Waitsfield's Small Dog Electronics, doesn't have to worry about complying with a smokers' rights law because the state has none. Small Dog, a reseller of Apple and Macintosh products with a workforce of 27, refuses to hire smokers. Period.

"Smokers tend not to be as productive or as healthy," said Mayer. "They take more breaks and longer lunch hours. It's an addiction that affects the quality of their work."

Small Dog pays 100 percent of employees' health care premiums. "If I'm making that financial commitment, I don't want to tolerate that unhealthy habit," Mayer explained. "And the reaction has been mostly positive."

Bans Extend to Outdoors

A number of employers are expanding their workplace smoking policies to cover not only company buildings but also parking lots, sidewalks and other outdoor areas.

In North Carolina, a strong tobacco state with a smokers' rights law, home improvement retailer Lowe's, based in Mooresville, rolled out a stringent new smoking policy last fall. The policy, which applies at all corporate locations, regional offices and stores, and which covers customers and vendors in addition to Lowe's 150,000 employees, bars smoking on all company property, indoors and outdoors, including parking lots. The company announced the policy seven months before its implementation to give employees a chance to get used to it. Until then, the company allowed smoking outdoors. The company worked with the American Lung Association to help employees quit.

"We've surveyed employees about this, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive," said Lowe's spokesperson Allison Holliday. "One store manager who was a smoker told me it was a great policy, and productivity has never been better."

DIANE CADRAIN, J.D., IS A FREELANCE WRITER BASED IN WEST HARTFORD, CONN., AND A MEMBER OF THE HUMAN RESOURCE ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL CONNECTICUT.