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News in Brief: Smoke Gets In Your Lies, Whirlpool Suspends Workers for Smoking Fibs

Smoke Gets In Your Lies, Whirlpool Suspends Workers for Smoking Fibs
The employees had claimed to be nonsmokers to avoid paying a $500 annual surcharge Whirlpool has assessed on smokers who are enrolled in the company’s health benefits plan.
April 22, 2008
Smoke Gets In Your Lies, Whirlpool Suspends Workers for Smoking Fibs
Thirty-nine employees of Whirlpool Corp.’s Evansville, Indiana, manufacturing plant have been suspended for lying about their smoking habits.

The employees had claimed to be nonsmokers to avoid paying a $500 annual surcharge Whirlpool has assessed on smokers who are enrolled in the company’s health benefits plan, a company spokesman confirmed.

However, other employees reported seeing the alleged nonsmokers lighting up in designated smoking areas outside the plant, the Benton Harbor, Michigan-based manufacturer reported.

Filed by Joanne Wojcik of Business Insurance, a sister publication of Workforce Management. To comment, e-mail editors@workforce.com.

 




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