The European Commission has ruled that a company does not have to hire people who smoke, even if they do so on their own time. If a person has a cigarette at home after dinner, he can lose his job, or not be hired in the first place. There are companies in America that have done this. Smoking is a stupid addiction that leads to thousands of deaths a year. But, it is still a legal activity and the government makes billions of dollars on the taxes imposed on tobacco. If it is a legal activity, doing it on your time (not on company business or property) should be perfectly legal. The American companies involved have instituted urine testing for tobacco by-products. Any employee who tests positive is dismissed. I think these cases are under law suit, but I am not sure.
Suppose it is ruled legal that a person who smokes does not have to be hired. Does this then extend to people who are obese? If a person eats fatty foods or has a weight problem, can that person be denied a job, or fired for gaining weight? What about the perfectly legal activity of drinking alcohol? If a person has a glass of wine with dinner or a few beers watching the football games can he be fired or refused employment if the company decides alcohol use is offensive or costly in terms of health care coverage?
Most people who oppose these items will say that it should be OK. It does not matter, to them, that the government has made the use of alcohol and tobacco legal. It does not matter that we are allowed to buy and consume fatty or other unhealthy foods. The greater good is that they can control behavior and make you a “better” person.
So now, let us extend the argument. Suppose a company has a rule that it will not hire anyone with HIV/AIDS and will fire anyone who gets the disease. Suppose the owner decides that he will not hire homosexuals because they are much more likely to get the disease than heterosexuals. Suppose that the disease is not even considered and the employer thinks that homosexuality is immoral behavior. This scenario makes as much sense as refusing employment or firing people for the other mentioned “offenses.”
This is a very slippery slope and if this kind of thing begins to take a foothold a lot of people will be denied jobs for a number of reasons not related to their ability to actually do the job. The unfortunate thing is, most of society will not raise a stink about these things until it gets to the level of discrimination of homosexuals. Up until that point, they will be perfectly willing to accept discrimination for behaviors they think are disgusting.
Source:
Time Europe