STA considers worker smoking ban

Puff away and your Spokane Transit Authority job hopes may disappear in the cloud of smoke.

STA executives want a nonsmoking work force but are limiting the proposed employment ban only to nonunion positions, including management jobs. An across-the-board policy likely would require renegotiation of labor contracts.

“The decision is pretty straightforward. The health care costs and productivity of nonsmokers is lower and higher, respectively,” said STA CEO Susan Meyer.

The STA Board of Directors, which would have to approve the plan, will be briefed on the proposal today. Although no vote is expected until next month, reaction is already mixed.

Board member and Spokane City Councilman Al French said he supports the idea as a way to control medical insurance costs.

“It’s been documented that workers who smoke have a higher incidence of health problems than those that don’t,” French said.

Spokane County commissioners two years ago considered a similar policy for county employees.

But the policy, tentatively approved by then-Commissioners John Roskelley, Kate McCaslin and current County Commissioner Phil Harris, was never finalized and was later abandoned as new commissioners Mark Richard and Todd Mielke came on board, said Spokane County Human Resources Director Cathy Malzahn.

Mielke, a former tobacco lobbyist, is also an STA board member. He said Wednesday that while he backs employer-sponsored smoking-cessation programs, he opposes banning smokers from getting jobs at STA.

“I would be very concerned about stipulating what people can or cannot do that is legal outside of their employment. I don’t understand where the line stops and starts,” he said.

“What’s next? The person shouldn’t scuba dive or climb mountains? They shouldn’t eat fast food?”

STA board member and Spokane City Councilwoman Nancy McLaughlin said she supports the policy in principle but worries that it may be discriminatory.

As for any possible worries that STA will send spies to check up on new employees, Meyer said that won’t happen.

“We’re going to count on the integrity and maturity of people who come to work for us and say they don’t smoke,” she said.