Via MSNBC “Employers in Europe are free to refuse smokers a job…The European Commission, which has presided over a vast array of anti-discrimination legislation in the past six years, has confirmed that it does not cover tobacco users.”

Nor should it.

But then again, I would suggest that the anti-discrimination policy ought to be abolished, along with a slew of other complicating factors that make racism and discrimination economically viable even when there exist laws ostensibly aimed at preventing it. Employers ought to be free to hire whomever they prefer, on whatever grounds they deem necessary. If that means that someone refuses to hire you because you’re a jew, a woman, Chinese, etc., then so be it. Why would you want to work for someone who has demonstrated his intolerance for your “kind.”

That said, I’ve got to side with the employers in this decision. Smoking is unhealthy, although, I’ll admit, it does make you cool, contrary to what your elementary school teachers told you. And to the extent that it’s unhealthy, it is an expensive undertaking for businesses – especially small businesses. Productivity is lessened, as smokers take unnecessary breaks during the day. Studies have shown that contrary to the smoker’s assertions, consumption of nicotine actually increases stress. Smoking is demonstrably unhealthy, and hence expensive to insure against the myriad risks. And it makes you smell. But that’s a far cry from suggesting there ought to be national or pan-national legislation that bans smoking, or something to that effect. All of the costs and health risks, and other things listed above are to some extent, undesireable from an employer’s point of view. His tolerance for these matters should be the only arbiter in the hiring decision. Leave the business decisions to the businessmen.

h/t Brussels Journal, where I’ll have to agree with the first commenter who said “For once the EU gives employers freedom to set their own hiring policy and you cry nanny-statist? This smells a little bit like a knee jerk reaction…