Can an employer allow cigarettes but not vapes?
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Can an employer allow cigarettes but not vapes?
I recently started working at a manufacturing company and during training they asked if I was a smoker and I told them I had a vape. They then told me that if I wanted to work there I had to switch back to cigarettes or quit all together as only cigarettes were allowed on the property, no vapes or chewing tobacco, in the designated smoke areas. Their reasoning being that,
Asked on May 12, 2018 under Employment Labor Law, Michigan
Answers:
M.D., Member, California and New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
Unless this mandate violates the terms of an employment contract or union agreement, it is legal. The fact is that most work relationships are "at will". This means that a company can set the conditions of the workplace much as it sees fit, that is absent any form of legally actionable discrimination. And not being able to smoke a vape at work does not constitute such discrimination. Accordingly, you can either continue or complain about this policy but risk termination, accept the situation, or quit.
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