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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Should They Be Fired?

Posted By: 39 Whirlpool workers suspended over smoking lies on 2008-04-23
In Reply to:

If they don't and ask them to pay back the no smoking benefit $$ I wonder how far they can go back?

Sara


39 Whirlpool workers suspended over smoking lies



INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AP) -- Smoking can be hazardous to your health, and it's turning into a bad career move, too.
A Whirlpool Corp. factory in Evansville, Indiana, has suspended 39 workers who signed insurance paperwork claiming they don't use tobacco and then were seen smoking or chewing tobacco on company property. Now, some could be fired for lying, company spokeswoman Debby Castrale said.
As annual health care premiums rise more than 10 percent a year, many companies are trying to rein in costs by encouraging healthy living.
"I can't think of a client of ours who has not shifted their focus to controlling the cost of their health care plan," said Indianapolis, Indiana, benefits lawyer Mike Paton.
Some employers have developed wellness programs to motivate employees, while others ask employees to state on benefits forms whether they use tobacco.
Whirlpool, based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, uses financial incentives to encourage U.S. workers and their dependents to abstain from tobacco use, spokeswoman Jill Saletta said. The specifics vary according to location.
In Evansville, the 1,500-employee factory charges tobacco users an extra $500 in annual health insurance premiums. The refrigerator factory has levied the extra premium since 1996, and it depends on employees to honestly fill out forms. It doesn't mandate blood tests to detect nicotine or trail employees outside work, Castrale said.
Management suspended the 39 employees Friday after they were spotted using either chewing tobacco on company property or taking a drag in one of the factory's dozen shelters for outdoor smoking, Castrale said.
"It's definitely not something we wanted to do," she said. "It's unpleasant."
The employees were suspended without pay, and they'll present their case at "fact-finding" meetings before management determines their fate. Whirlpool had to recall some laid-off workers to keep production running due to the suspensions.
A 2007 national survey showed that 16 percent of all large employers -- those with 20,000 or more employees -- adjust health care premium contributions according to the worker's smoking status, according to the human resources consulting firm Mercer.
The federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act limits the changes an employer can make to a health premium because of a worker's unhealthy habits. But it doesn't set parameters on punishment if an employee lies about his or her habit, Paton said.
Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, which advocates for employee privacy, sees no problem with employers trying to curb smoking. But he worries that the trend of cracking down on employees' unhealthy behavior is extending beyond tobacco use.
"We shouldn't have to give employers complete control over our private life so they can save a few dollars on medical care," he said.



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Did someone actually get fired for this?

I got fired once ...
supposedly because after only a half-day of training on the front desk, I could not address the patients by name when I saw them! Since my entire period of employment up until I was called to substitute at the front desk was spent stashed in the back transcribing, I had never even SEEN the patients, and thus could not possibly be expected to match names with faces. Obviously, they fired me for other reasons. It is equally obvious that the OP's co-workers and supervisors are not looking out for her best interests, and the lack of ability to understand a couple of ESL dictators is probably the least of her problems. (I am assuming it is a her. Forgive me if I am mistaken about that.)

Accents or no, some dictators defy understanding. Right now I am transcribing a doctor from Nigeria who is a little mushy but she speaks quite slowly, pronounces almost everything correctly, and I stand in awe at her (and most other ESL docs, frankly) command of English usage and syntax, with the added "bonus" of medical language on top of everything else.

And one night when I was pretty new on this job, I transcribed a VERY difficult ESL doc, whom I was ready to KILL by the time I was done. (And he was from my tertiary backup account so I didn't have samples to refer to, or prior experience with him.) But at the end, he said something like, "Thank you for taking the trouble to transcribe this dictation, God bless you, please." Okay, he was allowed to live. ;)

And I've NEVER been taken to task for leaving blanks. Never. I was even told by a supervisor that if I have to leave 100 blanks, so be it--they'd rather I blank it than try to guess.
Absolutely, and she should be fired...!
z
so ya think if ABC fired her, they wouldn't tell the
       
I'm so fired up left off, "I don't THINK its right! nm
X
I think it is in bad taste and he should be fired from his job...
but I am not sure it is a crime. An 18-year-old knows what she is doing. To be honest, so does a 16 or 17-year-old. I certainly think that he should lose his teaching license, but it really is not sexual misconduct with a minor. She was not a minor.
Walmart fired my daughter...

the last week in November.  She had called in sick 2 days before, and the assistant manager who fired her said they knew she had called, but they were firing her for a "no call, no show."  The truth is my daughter worked in lay-away, which has been discontinued at Walmart, and they had no place for her in another department. 


She had loved working there and was totally crushed when they fired her.  A month before Christmas . . . what a nice surprise!


I think Walmart stinks.


Yes, they should be fired and required to refund
They hurt everyone with this. It is lying, cheating and stealing.

It's his time if he's off the clock. Otherwise he should be fired - nm
:)
It's not the worker's fault. She has to follow the rules or be fired. sm
I've taken a lot of flack from a lot of customers, and the run-of-the-mill retail worker really has no freedom to make decisions. When the worker is caught between a yelling customer and a yelling manager, who do you think she'll listen to?