DQ1 Week 2 Do employers have the right to screen employees or potential employees to learn if they are smokers have chronic disease or are overweight No When an employer is screening a new employee or potential employee they cannot discriminate if they smoke have a chronic disease or are overweight Unless the job requires a weight limit such as a policeman firefighter and even the armed forces has weight limitations One has to be very careful how one approaches this It cannot come across as discriminate Obesity a condition estimated to cost U S companies 13 billion per year according to the Washington D C based National Business Group on Health However this is after the fact employees that are already in the company however once again one cannot discriminate I know some employers offer incentives for employees that quit smoking or lose weight Insurances offer incentives and discounts as well As far as the chronic disease that is why we have FMLA and I do not think if the illness would impair the job then it should not be a factor Again this depends on a job because I am sure that a person with chronic to severe asthma would not apply for a firefighter knowing that it would cause an asthma exacerbation Response 2 I believe an employer can do whatever they want So if that means they don t want to hire smokers or over weight people then they have the right to do so From what I understand in recent times employers are more likely to lean this way Claiming that over weight or smokers cause higher insurance rates which in turn cost the employer more on their insurance rates which makes companies now a days look at this is as a higher risk and may make them not hire you I mean really how would one know if the employer didn t hire you because you were a smoker or you were overweight You wouldn t really know and I don t believe they will tell you the real reason if this was the case All they say are we found someone with more experience not because you were a smoker or an over weight person Now once I had all the experience and knowledge and was ready to get hired then they found out I didn t speak Spanish So because I didn t speak Spanish I did not get the job and they had every right to not hire me because of this and said because in the job offer it says Spanish speaking only so they had the right to not hire me because of this Was I upset yes but what can you do they have the final call and I am sure smoking and being over weight are also causes now to not hire you is it right Not in my opinion But they did it and there was nothing I could do about it