St. Louis' largest employers are turning to incentive programs and revamping their hiring and health-care policies to encourage workers to kick their smoking addictions.
SSM Health Care SSM Health Care Follow this company , which employs more than 12,000, grabbed headlines in recent days about its plan to stop hiring tobacco users at its seven St. Louis-area hospitals starting next month. The decision has sparked a backlash of negative comments on online forums, mostly from workers' rights groups and smokers. SSM expected that the policy would draw some criticism but decided it was still the best option for the health of its employees, SSM spokesman Chris Sutton said.
Critics, including the American Civil Liberties Union American Civil Liberties Union Follow this company and cigarette companies, say tobacco-free hiring infringes on workers' private lives. But more employers nationwide are adopting this approach, with SSM leading the way in the St. Louis area.
Before making its decision, SSM studied Saint Francis Medical Center Saint Francis Medical Center Follow this company in Cape Girardeau, which stopped hiring tobacco users last year, as well as other hospitals with similar hiring practices in Florida, Georgia and Massachusetts, Sutton said.
SSM also offers a tobacco-free credit, which amounts to $30 every six months in employees' paychecks if they declare they have been tobacco-free for the last six months.
SSM has taken the most drastic approach to curbing smoking among St. Louis employers but the health system is not alone in looking at different ways to encourage employees to put their butts out.
Last week, St. Louis Public Schools St. Louis Public Schools Follow this company , one of the area's top employers with more than 4,400 workers, approved a revised policy that adds specifics to the district's ban on smoking both inside and outside district buildings, said Patrick Wallace, a school district spokesman. For employees, the punishment for violation could include dismissal. The new policy also stipulates steps to be taken by the district to provide cessation programs for employees. The updated policy takes effect Jan. 1, 2012.
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