Former Love’s Travel Worker Sues Over Health Plan’s Tobacco Fee

Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Inc. was sued by a former employee over its practice of charging tobacco-using workers an extra $20 per week for health-care coverage.

The gas station chain penalizes smokers on its health plan without giving them a valid opportunity to have the charges waived, the worker said in a proposed class complaint docketed Feb. 6 in the US District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. Love’s tells workers they can avoid the penalties by completing a quit-smoking program, but it doesn’t provide retroactive reimbursement of penalties that have already been paid, according to the ...