Convenience Chain Sued Over Smoker Penalty in Worker Health Plan

Casey’s General Stores Inc. improperly requires workers who smoke to pay an extra $910 each year for health-care coverage without providing a legal pathway for avoiding the penalty, an employee said in a new lawsuit.

The proposed class action, filed March 28 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, takes aim at the convenience store chain’s practice of deducting $35 from each paycheck of the tobacco-using employees on its health plan. This practice violates the legal standards set forth in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, plaintiff Elizabeth Blalock said, because workers aren’t given an ...