Earlier this week, 4 employees of Michigan based Weyco, Inc were fired for refusing to be tested for smoking.

Weyco founder, Howard Weyers was quoted as saying "I don't want to pay for the results of smoking", and that the employees were fired as a cost cutting measure.

My take on this:

Health Insurance is typically offered an employee as an "incentive" to go to work for the company. No employee is forced to take this benefit, and it is not mandatory to have health insurance to be employed.

QUESTION #1: Are these firings justified for the reason stated by Mr. Weyers, when the Health Insurance was "offered" the employee's, not mandated as part of employment requirements?

There is no information as to if Weyco dropped any smoking benificieries fro the Group Health Plan that were spouses or Children of the employee's, but best guess is that they were not (none are mentioned in any report I have seen.

Question #2: If no smoking spouses were dropped from the Health Insurance plan, and, with the knowledge that the "smoking spouse" would cost the company as much in additional Health Care premiums as a "smoking employee", does Mr. Weyers explanation for these firings meet legal standards?

Question #3: Is this another example of Big Business prying into the personal and private lives of it's employees?

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