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The Current

Smokers need not apply

Some companies in Canada and the U.S. are refusing to hire Smokers. They cite lost productivity, costs lost to illness and the potential to kill the co-worker in the neighbouring cubicle. Our project Line in the Sand tackles the ethics of hiring policies that refuse all smokers....
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The Current23:59Smokers need not apply
Some companies in Canada and the U.S. are refusing to hire Smokers. They cite lost productivity, costs lost to illness and the potential to kill the co-worker in the neighbouring cubicle. Our project Line in the Sand tackles the ethics of hiring policies that refuse all smokers.


Panel: Kristin Voigt / Scott McDonald

Rob Hall makes no apologies for his hiring policy. Smokers need not apply for jobs at Momentous in Ottawa. The internet company insists that employees don't light up. Not just at work but also at home... or anywhere. His company joins a growing trend in North America ... hospitals and companies are increasingly adopting similar hiring practices. Rob Hall says it's popular with the employees.

There's no specific human right to smoke but certainly smokers have challenged these kinds of rules with mixed success. Fred Wynne is an employment lawyer in Vancouver. He says a smoker could claim their human rights have been violated because smoking as an addiction could be a physical disability. We aired a clip.

In the U.S. - smokers have some legal protection in 29 American states. But States such as South Carolina are considering scrapping the protection... opening the door for more companies to reject smokers.

This month, the New England Journal of Medicine published articles on both sides of the debate. As part of our project Line in the Sand: Dilemmas that define us, we are looking at these controversial hiring policies and the ethical issues they raise.

Kristin Voigt is an Assistant professor at McGill University with the Institute for Health and Social Policy and the Department of Philosophy. She's one of the authors of the paper questioning hiring policies that reject smokers. She was in our studio in Montreal.

And Scott McDonald is the President and CEO of the BC Lung Association. He was in Vancouver.

This segment was produced by The Current's Liz Hoath and Shannon Higgins.

Over to you... Is it unethical for companies to refuse to hire smokers? Or is it high time employers stop hiring people who smoke. Email us through our website. Call us toll free at 1 877 287 7366. Tweet us @thecurrentcbc, or find us on Facebook.


Other segments from today's show:

The politics and timing behind Bill S-7

The Great Pretenders: Why we fall for cons, schemes and imposters

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