I read the articles where a city in FL wants to stop hiring smokers, and

[FormerRepublican]

a company wants employee health records when they call in sick. With this new employer interest in employee health, it made me realize what a horribly bad position we, as employees are in.

A lot of people are affected by environmental and on the job contamination. For example, the recent PG&E settlement that was announced, and the court case regarding contamination in New York after 9/11.

Well, with this sudden interest by employers in our medical data, can't they refuse to hire us if we were exposed to environmental contaminants that negatively impact our health?

At the very same time that this risk is looming, BushCo is trying to limit jury awards for these same types of cases.

Get ready to kiss your *ss goodbye, because companies will poison you and end your employment career, and BushCo will prevent you from collecting damages. Just suffer, little people, it's the BushCo way.

:puke: :puke:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. My company would rather I didn't smoke (I don't) but they don't

mind seeing me washing machines that are covered with doo doo from a landfill, go figure....

[seabeyond]

2. hate and bigotry towards smoking has led us to the loss

of anything else those in power want to inflict on us, jsut cause they dont like it. sometimes we must stand up for the poeple, that we may not like or agree with for the greater of the whole. we have failed on du, we fail as a nation and we will all suffer the repercussions.

[boobooday]

3. Personal responsibility

I think the overall strategy is about framing things, and what ultimately ends up as the narrative.

The whole focus on smokers and obesity, the focus on crime, all these things conveniently take our attention away from society, and make us see everything at the level of the individual. Are you sick? Are you poor? Gee, it must be something about YOU. And, if it is always about personal responsibility, then it is never about collective (or government) responsibility.

So we focus on smokers instead of industrial polluters. We focus on fat people instead of focusing on genetically engineered food, or factory farms. We focus on illegal aliens instead of the industries and companies that hire them, etc.

[Heddi]

4. They want records if you call in sick?????

that's insane. They have no reason to see my fucking records if I call out and return with a Dr's note. What business is it of theirs if I had a mental fucking breakdown and had to go to the ER and get some Ativan, or if I had to go to my OB/GYN because of vaginal bleeding, or that I went to the Dr down the road because I had red, weeping lesions on my labia.

I think that's going too far and is very much an intrusion into medical privacy. Maybe I have an ongoing condition that I'd prefer my employer not to know about. I have a right to have medical conditions. What if I'm HIV positive? What if I've got cancer? What if I've got the flu? If my illness, disease, disability, or disorder does not negatively affect my job, then they have no right to know about it. If they don't want their employees to take sick days, then don't GIVE employees sick days. However, I assume the company gives X sick days/hours a year because they realize that workers are human and occasionally get sick. A Dr's note should be fine. I could see diciplinary action if someone abused sick days and didn't have a dr's note---but to punish EVERYONE and make their personal medical records part of their HR/Personnel folder is beyond the pale.

I'll turn over MY records to my boss when S/HE turns over THEIR records to me. What's fair is fair, right?

PS--I don't think this would end up being constitutional. Especially with HIPAA and how powerful it is with regards to medical privacy. I cannot see how this would be legal AT ALL

[The Straight Story]

6. More on this here: (employees have to sign waivers or lose vacation time)

Hourly employees at Delphi Corp. who refuse to sign waivers releasing their medical records could lose vacation days or pay as part of a new, stricter policy adopted in April to combat absenteeism.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=337642&mesg_id=337642

[ladjf]

5. Overweight people are next. Then what? People with asthma?