Reference no: EM1397848

Case is given below that occurred a few years ago where the man was fired for smoking at home, against company policy. Courts have upheld rights of employer to do this. Write down your thoughts about this? Should company be able to dictate behavior when you are in your own home?

One fall day in 2006, Scott Rodrigues arrived for work at Massachusetts lawn and garden company which had hired him several weeks earlier, only to hear bad news.

Results of drug test required for employment showed that Rodrigues, 30, had ingested substance expressly forbidden by company policy: nicotine.

Rodrigues knew of company's anti-smoking policy, but argued that he never smoked on job; he smoked only at home. It did not matter. He was fired on spot.

A few weeks later, Rodrigues filed suit in state court, victim of growing workplace trend: Beset by escalating health-care costs, employers are increasingly looking to regulate employee behavior - at home as well as in workplace.

"In last couple of years we have seen huge rise in employer actions based on off-duty legal activity," says Jeremy Gruber, legal director of National Workrights Institute, nonprofit organization in Princeton, N.J.
Employment lawyers refer to this phenomenon as "lifestyle discrimination" - and they think practice will continue to spread.