Tobacco Documents Online

: im"I:avMR ?~R 9s- ---l1/1ANAGEMENT -- - - of a gmwingpattern of diminish- . _ uonal Labor Organization •trports that nowhere in the ia- No smo witho dustrial world has worker privacy been so eroded by computer monitoring and elecnonic and photogtaphic stuveiIIance as in ' the US. Even humanitarian corporate welfare progtammes, ostensibly sympathetic to human frailty, may be insensitive to human tights. In the last decade thou- sands of corporations have formed Employee Assistance Pzog=ams, free or subsidised ser- ~ vices for workers with addiction or psychiatric problems. In theory EAPs are confidea- ~ tial and use of these services can- i ; not be prejudicial. In ptactice the ~ courts have heard raaay ctses ; where secmcy was violated and workers with problems were de- ~ moted or dismissed. A 117a11 Snrrc firinas IJournal ardde- lut year alleged t tbat workers who sue em lo ers p y ., ., r•_. - _ I for age, race or sex discnmiaa- EORGE Orwell's wamings _'Amerjcan empioyees 'blood pressure, cholesteroI, ~ don are quite likely to find their' )out Big Brother may have blood sugar and hiag capadty. personal EAP records used ' -oved groundless, but his increasingly live in -me several hundred''wellness againstthemincourt.t aaller sibling appears to. have - fear of the corporate companies that offer iaceatives, In mentdiscussions about the ually ~~e fotm of reductions ~ New York City Police Deparc- sfaced. 1 w.~ ;- (ifestyle police, W1'It@S us Little Brother has showa him- ~-~~ ia the employee s portion of the. - -. If in a number of US compa- •' John Thackray '°~•" health insurance premium, in-. meat'sEAP; aadwhyrioacofthe .es and his maiign influence is dude Adolph Coors, Hershey 10 policemen who committed nsading - manifesting itself pieces of equipment owned by Foods, Sara Lee, Honeywell, suicide this past year had sought iiefly around issues of employ- the company. Nor are they chil- AT&T, Control Data and John- -~~~gp ~~~ ~e out. ~' physical and mental health. dren whose parent is the com- son & Johnson. . `'Ihe service psychiatric providers onsider his appearance at But- paay,' says ACLU esecutive di- Other companies use a stick, if for the F,qP are required to file r Properties Management As- rector Ira Glasser. 'Unless off- mildly, to the same ends. At. detailed reports, .As aresult,a xiates, a real-estate outfit in duty conduct affects job Tezas Instruments, workers are 'many law enforcement petsoa- • :eorgia. When one of the firm's performance, it is none of an em- charged 310, a mom they • nel choose notto use their mental ,' aff had a serious sporting acci- ployer's business.' - _ sm e or•g~ tobacco. L1-.a .iul , health benefits because these ! eat, the company, which self- Industrial psychologist Harry IntemationaPs pecal_yt for smok- ! reports get fed into a databank: isures worker health benefits, Levinsoa agrees: 'Many of us do eis aa3 ovesweigiu workeis is SS I They are understandably con- eclared that it would not em- dangerous things, like driviag a week: At Fottaaoffsmokers are ! cerned that this information loy ne engaged in `hazard- down the highway at 90 miles an clipped $12.50 a week. One ~~~ get into the wrong haads,' us , aes' - pursuits such as hour - how are corporations go- Texas Instrumeats smoking em- wrote Gloria Rothenberg, pmsi- Kyd, piloting private air- ing to intrude on that.)' .- ployee grambles that co-woritets dent of the Nassau County•Psy- raft, mouatain climbing and use Iittle Brother seems pesvase who 'jump out of airplanes for chological Association, in a letter f illegal substances. with his assumption that employ- lo11ies or race cars on weesceacu- Butler's lawyer predicts that 3is shackling of employees"out- f-houts' activities will become aore common, `because•heaith- are eapenses are becoming one I the biggest lines on the P&L ratements' But such. prohibitions are not zon8aed to high-risk reatations. rhe biggest attack on personal ights concems smoking and irinking. Sevesal thousand_com- iaaies refuse to hue smokers. A :ouple of years ago Ford Meter 3ox Co of Wabash, Indiana, ired a clerk after utme tests revealed traces of nicotiae. Al- though Indiana later.passed a law making this prohibition illegal - iargely due to the tobacco lobby - in about half the states where that lobby has not prevailed em- ployers are free to follow Ford Meter Box's esample. The cetm invented for this conducr by the Ame=ican Civil Liberties Union is `lifestyie diu- camiaation'. `F,mployees are not ees can be personaIIy in control suffer no penaines at a1L of ill-health and its costs. That is Medical evidence on Iiale the rationale of 'r,vellness pro- Brother's side is sparse. 'High gnmmes' in which financial car- cholesterol and hypertension can rots are created for workers who be inherited chuactenstia. They meet targets for weight control, do not indicate that aa employee c:,: s.: is being itresponsible,' notes Dr Paul Berger of benefit consultant William M Memr. ~~re is aa err1nt use of epidemiological i data here,' addi PauLTeay,_di- , tzctor of health educat;en* rhs Minneapolis-based __.Park, Nicollett Medical Fouadarion. 'I I think one should dtaw the line at pointiag to a particular individ- ual and saying that he is Iikely to incur higher health costs. You can't take it that far and say, "If this person gives up smoidag he will not get cancer or emphy- sema", orvice vetsa,' Tetry says. lifes}yle_disaiminadon i~~rt . mg wori~ers' right:. "Ibe Interna- a---' 0 0 ~ LL O'3 Z ~ ~ ~ Cn ~ O0 0_

2046342969 to the New York Times. Although EAPs have by and large played a useful role in getting dysfunc% tional or unhappy workers to lead more productive lives, they are open to misuse - tempting em-: ployen to brand workers whg dtsagree or talk back to manage, ment as suffering from some psy- - chiatric malady. : ., Here Is such a case. In mid-` October an American Eagle ATR 72 turboprop crashed In icy weather In the lWdwest, killing 68. The National Transportation -Safety Board recommended•that all ATRs be grounded in icy con- '•dltlons until the crash was fully Investigated and analysed. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rejected this advice, though It ordered air traffic con- trollen to beware of putting this plane In holding patterns in bad weather. Although the airline pi- lots' union went along with this, the flight attendants did not and asked for a grounding of ATW. American Eagle, a'aubsidiary of American Airlines, ordered all recalcitrant'pilota to fly ATRs in all weather. When three of them refused to take off In bad condi- tions one day they were asked to seek counselling at the EAP. 'Well, sure,' says Little Brother, 'these guys have to be nuts to question the manage- ment's wisdom'. . • •