Ravenwood - 10/27/05 06:00 AM
Nobody seems to mind that companies are discriminating against smokers in the name of health care. But Wal-Mart - being Wal-Mart - is sure to catch hell for trying to make their employees to get a little more exercise:
An internal memo sent to the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. board proposes numerous ways to hold down health care and benefits costs with less harm to the retailer's reputation, including hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from seeking jobs, the New York Times said Wednesday...Like I said before, picking on smokers is only the tip of the iceberg. As soon as you accept that they have an interest in how you live your life, they're going to start making you eat better, get more exercise, or whatever. The slippery slope is clear.To discourage unhealthy job applicants, the paper said, Chambers suggests Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering),"
The memo also proposed that employees pay more for their spouses' health insurance, called for cutting the company's 401(k) contributions to 3 percent of wages from 4 percent and for cutting company-paid life insurance policies.
Category: Pleasure Police
Comments (2) top link me
The only problem is, if companies are not allowed to discriminate in any number of ways, then laws must be enacted to punish those acts. The more types of discrimination we want to punish, the more laws we need. That, in itself, is a very slippery slope, and one we've been sliding down for quite some time.
If I had to choose between the slippery slope of corporate discrimination, or the slippery slope of private industry losing control of the workforce they hire, I'd choose the corporate discrimination every time.
At least in that case we (the people) still have some say in their policies, i.e. we can refuse to work for and consume the products of any company we choose. Once you hand control over to government, though, good luck getting it back.
Posted by: roger at October 28, 2005 7:57 AMI agree with Roger - at-will employment does mean you accept the conditions of the employer. I'd rather see current employees grandfathered in - so that it's up front when you hire/are hired. But, still, if you don't like what your job imposes on you and find some part of it unreasonable, you can leave. It's even easier to do so at many jobs within the "Wal-Mart" level.
But keep the government out of my health habits. Even though I have some.
hln
Posted by: hln at October 28, 2005 1:30 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
