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Posted By Polonius on 02/01/2007 7:28 PM
After some half assed research, it appears that Utah statute would allow discriminatory hiring based on smoking. It, like most states, is an "At will" state, meaning a person can be denied a job or fired for any reason other than belonging to protected class (race, sex, religion, etc.) All Blue Table is doing is citing a preference, rather than allowing somebody to move to utah, rent an apartment, and then get fired two days later when they find out they smoke.

Despite having a classification of an at-will state, if you fire a smoker because of his status he can still bring suit against the company.  It's not an issue of the at-will but rather discrimination against a "class" of people.

 

Granted, smokers are a class of people.  But they are not protected. 

It's my understanding that a suit can be filed for almost any reason.  Whether it has a leg to stand on is another matter.

Here are a few enlightening articles on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_discrimination#Employment_Discrimination

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans_in_the_United_States

I am very keen on having an above-board law-abiding business.  I am very careful in my hiring and interviewing practices.  And that comes from the heart.  

I work hard to maintain a clean, professional, and sweet-smelling work environment.  There's more injunctions than just smoking.  For example: Blue Table asks that while at the studio people wear deodorant and not use hard profanity.  You'd think this stuff would be obvious, but it's not, so it's better just to set things up clearly up front.

Shawn G.

Posted By bluetablepainting on 02/03/2007 11:45 AM

It's my understanding that a suit can be filed for almost any reason.  Whether it has a leg to stand on is another matter.

there, are, very broadly speaking, three levels of lawsuit:

1) Suits with virtually no chance of success, that will most likely be rejected by the courts on the basis of the claim alone, with no need for discovery.  The only time to file these is if your damages are less than the defendant will spend filing a Rule 12(b)6 mottion.

2) Suits that are good enough to get past demurrer and unpredicitable enough that the defendant will try to settle for a fraction of your total, because while winning the jury trial seems unlikely, your damages are proportionally even higher.  In essence, a plaintiff can expect to collect damages equal to (his likely jury award)*(percent chance of winning).

3) Suits that are slam dunks.  The only real question is how big the jury award will be.  Often when the law, facts, and policy all intersect.

Any discrimination suit brought against Blue Table would be a solid #1: there is no cause of action in Utah for discriminating against a smoker.

Of course, i'm not a legal expert, so I might be wrong.  It's just useful to point out the different between "I could sue you" and "I could sue you and than win!"

Whats wrong with you people! I must be all 10 kinds of Invincible..

This seems like a really cool job if its your passion. And Im sure some potential applicant is happy you posted it on here!

Kudos

I wonder what the behind-the-scenes casting couch is like!