Smokers' suspensions spotlight incentive plans

Most companies are not taking punitive action against employees who fail to live up to terms of an insurance discount.

By Karen Caffarini, AMNews staff. May 12, 2008.

Whirlpool Corp. suspended 39 workers caught smoking or chewing tobacco on company grounds.

The Benton Harbor, Mich.-based company in late April said the suspended employees, all at its Evansville, Ind., refrigerator factory, signed insurance paperwork stating they were tobacco-free in exchange for a $500 break on their premiums.

About 38% of all companies with 20,000 or more employees use some sort of incentive program, including a discount on insurance premiums, to encourage healthy behavior, according to Mercer, a human resources consulting firm.

But experts say few have taken punitive action against their employees who were deemed to be lying about their status, or have even investigated whether anyone has been lying. Whirlpool is meeting with the 39 suspended employees to determine whether there might be further action, including firing them.

"It would be unduly harsh if Whirlpool would terminate these employees. For all we know, they may have in good faith been trying to quit smoking and had this one cigarette," asked Andrew Wachler, a health care attorney from Royal Oak, Mich.

Whirlpool did not say whether any of the employees had taken smoking-cessation classes or had tried other means to quit, if they had tried at all.