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Fast Fact:
30% or 1,590 of Scotts' 5,300 U.S. workers smoke.
And it's estimated that smokers cost an extra $4,000
a year each for health care and lost productivity.
SFSC estimates the extra cost to be as high as
$9,300 per smoker. Putting the total costs
for all Scotts' employed smokers at $14,787,000 a
year!
It's lunchtime at
the Scotts Miracle-Gro headquarters near Columbus,
Ohio, and the eating is healthy. |

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Scotts
has already banned smoking on the job. Next October
workers must stop altogether or find a new job.
(CBS) |
"I'll have some salmon," a
worker said.
That's because the company
that helps Americans grow their gardens is trying to trim
its workers waists — and $24 million per year in health care
costs.
So there's a full time
doctor and a new clinic, which is free to workers and
families enrolled in the company medical plan. There is a
drive through pharmacy with generic drugs — and right next
door: the new gym. It's also free to those who work out more
than twice a week. Otherwise, it's just ten dollars a month.
Presiding over this $5
million gamble is CEO Jim Hagedorn.
"It's partly about money
and keeping our costs under control," Hagedorn told CBS News
correspondent Jerry Bowen. "And it's partly about saying,
'Why would you wanna work a whole career here at Scotts,
retire and die?'"
It all sounds so good — and
if it works it may become the national model for curbing
corporate health care costs. But it's a carrot and stick
approach.
The stick is what
happens to smokers. If they won't quit, they won't have a
job at Scotts.
Thirty percent of
Scotts' 5,300 U.S. workers smoke. And it's estimated that
smokers cost an extra $4,000 a year each for health care and
lost productivity. Scotts has already banned smoking on the
job. Next October workers must stop altogether.
People like pack-a-day
smoker Kim Creviston.
"You're drawing the line
here," Creviston said. "But he is giving me a choice. If you
choose not to quit, then you choose to get a different job.
And I truly believe we will forsee other companies doing
this."
And that worries employment
law attorney Marvin Gittler: "Once you leave, once you
conclude your eight hours, frankly it's none of the
employer's business what you do," Gittler said. "I think
letting the employer go beyond those eight hours is much too
dangerous."
Hagedorn, once a
two-pack-a-day smoker, quit after his mother died of lung
cancer. He says workers will get help to stop. And as long
as they really try, they won't be fired, which they can be
in Ohio and 19 other states.
In states where they can't
be fired because of smokers' rights laws, they'll pay extra
for health insurance.
"This is not trying to take
things away from folks," Hagedorn said. "This is about
trying to keep our costs so that they're not rising sort of
in excess of the rate of inflation. And I think we can do
that if we run our wellness programs properly."
Change is never easy, but
it's the new reality for these workers. And if it works,
everybody's bottom line will look better.
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