Work/Life/Law
Are Employers Recognizing Obesity as a Problem?
Check out this story.
As obesity becomes a national threat, research continues to show the health-risks involved with being overweight. The article states, "Being overweight increases the risk for diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, stroke, sleep apnea, respiratory problems and some cancers. Being obese poses the greatest health risks." As the population is becoming increasingly overweight, employers struggle to offer health plans that cover illnesses and diseases caused by obesity. As discussed in class, more employers are beginning to offer health advice in the workplace, and some are enforcing healthier policies for employees to abide by. Do you think that employers should be required to go along with these policies? This may mean that employees must keep a certain Body Mass Index to stay employed, or smoking breaks are not allowed. The reason the employers want to do this, is to provide intervention to reduce health insurance costs to the company; but is this fair to the employer? I believe that since money will be saved through these preventative measures, that they should be taken. Although obesity will not be eliminated throughout the population, enforcing stricter habits in the workplace can help to eliminate some of it.
Check out this story.
As obesity becomes a national threat, research continues to show the health-risks involved with being overweight. The article states, "Being overweight increases the risk for diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart diseases, stroke, sleep apnea, respiratory problems and some cancers. Being obese poses the greatest health risks." As the population is becoming increasingly overweight, employers struggle to offer health plans that cover illnesses and diseases caused by obesity. As discussed in class, more employers are beginning to offer health advice in the workplace, and some are enforcing healthier policies for employees to abide by. Do you think that employers should be required to go along with these policies? This may mean that employees must keep a certain Body Mass Index to stay employed, or smoking breaks are not allowed. The reason the employers want to do this, is to provide intervention to reduce health insurance costs to the company; but is this fair to the employer? I believe that since money will be saved through these preventative measures, that they should be taken. Although obesity will not be eliminated throughout the population, enforcing stricter habits in the workplace can help to eliminate some of it.
posted by Anonymous at
2:18 PM
1 Comments:
I do not think there is any way you can force an employee to eat a certain way or give up smoking or work out three days a week. That stuff is our choice as Americans and we can choose to live our life however we want. That being said, I do not think an employer can be stopped form firing someone whom they think is too unhealthy. If an employer feels that someone posses a big enough risk to their health insurance policy and they want to fire them for that, that is their prerogative.
The only way an employer can get bit by this is if they fire someone because of their health, and that employee’s health is caused by one of the protected characteristics such as disability, sex, color, nation original etc. So an employer cannot fire someone for being overweight if they are overweight because of medical conditions (Disability Discrimination).
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