Wednesday, March 01, 2006

2/28 - Boston Legal, Colbert Report

New footnotes for Boston Legal (firing someone for smoking off the job) and the Colbert Report.

Alan's case here seems to be based on a Michigan health-care company that reportedly fired four employees in early 2005 after they refused to take tests to determine if they had stopped smoking. The company, Weyco, Inc., defended the policy as a way of managing health care costs.

Private employers generally can hire and fire for whatever reason, so long as they do not engage in illegal discriminatory behavior. And, in fact, many states have passed "lifestyle discrimination" statutes that prevent employers from firing people because they smoke while off the job. According to the ACLU, 21 states had passed lifestyle discrimination statutes as of 2005 (on-line here).

However, Massachusetts has not enacted such a law. Without such a law making it illegal for employers to consider off-duty smoking in employment decisions, Alan's friend has no legal basis for bringing a lawsuit against her former employer, and her lawsuit thus was properly dismissed before getting to a jury.

posted by Stephen Lee @ 3/01/2006 08:44:00 AM