Cascades Employee Sues Over Health-Care Plan’s Tobacco Penalty

Cascades USA Inc. was hit with a proposed class action challenging its practice of charging an extra $10 per week for health-care coverage to employees who use tobacco products.

The company penalizes tobacco-using employees without giving them a legally compliant method for having the charges waived, a Cascades employee said in a complaint filed Tuesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of New York. Cascades doesn’t provide a smoking cessation program, waiver, or alternative route for tobacco users to avoid paying the penalty—rather, “the only avenue for smokers to avoid the surcharge is to quit smoking.”

Federal ...