Meijer Employee Files Suit Over Health Plan’s Smoker Penalty

Meijer Inc. was sued by an employee challenging the Midwestern retailer’s alleged practice of charging tobacco-using workers an extra $20 each week for health coverage without providing a valid way to have the penalty waived.

Meijer charges these penalties without properly explaining them to workers or giving them an opportunity to receive retroactive reimbursement of penalties they’ve already paid, the employee said in a proposed class complaint filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Meijer allows workers to avoid future charges by completing a quit-smoking program, but its failure to provide retroactive reimbursement flouts ...