[quote=fit29;300054]Regarding Alaska airlines policy, How do they justify this, it does seem like discriminatio to me.



Smokers are not a protected class. Therefore, employers are within their legal rights to not hire them.

 

Nothing a little Big Red won't take care of.

 

Probably!!! I know of some non-aviation employers that are starting to use the hair test drug screening and they can look back your whole life for marijuana use! Most that i have heard of look back 1 to 3 years! I dont know about the nicotine tests!

 

[quote=navigatro;300056]IIRC, this hasn't been challenged in court. I would say that employers are within thier rights to preclude you from smoking while on duty or on company property, but I don't know how a total life ban from something that is legal would hold up. I can see them assessing a surcharge for health insurance though.

This is a slippery slope situation. What happens when the the company decides they don't want to hire people who eat too much or people who consume alcohol? They are both life choices that could affect you in a negative health way. Do you want your company telling you what you can do on your own time? I don't smoke, but I respect the right of people to do what they please to their own bodies on their own time. Keep it out of my home, my place of work, and other designated public locations and I'm happy. If you want to destroy your lungs go right ahead while I destroy my liver.

 

I also take issue with employers who are looking far back into people's lives to make hiring decisions. If you smoked weed when you were a stupid HS or college student, should it prevent you from getting a job 10 years later? Did you fess up to it and discontinue the activity? There is a lot of information tracked about us already. Is this the direction we want our society heading?

 

well i'm not saying that we're cheech and chong as a society! But I believe a good portion of our future employers wouldnt be too discriminatory on that, based on their fear of how their test results would come back! I mean even president clinton puffed the magic dragon!

 

A puff only - and that is okay because he didn't inhale...

 

But it would indeed show up on a hair test!!!!! I could just see him now! ***moving a clinched fist back and forth in a assertive rhythmic reassuring manor*** I did not have THC relations with that water bong!!!

 

Well you'd better get used to it, because our Country, and the entire world, is headed there. The average American is caught on video hundreds of times a day. We have camera's at red lights. We have automatic speeding tickets on tollways. Our Cable companies know exactly what we're watching at any time...the list is endless.

Basically, our lives are not our own anymore. The institution of "freedom" is now just a nice idea and nothing more.

 

god bless the patriot act!!!! My god they're probably watching me now!!!! I am going back to my bomb shelter!