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HR buddies

The Covent Garden HR Buddies is an initiative facilitated by Clarkslegal to offer the London HR community the opportunity to meet with like-minded peers, attend relevant seminars and workshops and boost your knowhow of the issues specific to this sector.
 
It’s free and open to anyone interested in HR. It sets its own agenda, so it can be purely social or facilitate presentations to help prevent HR problems for companies in the London area. So if you want to network face to face contact buddy@clarkslegal.com. Click here for further details about our next HR Buddies event.  

If, alternatively, you wish to network online with other HR professionals, then using the discussion forum below, is your ideal opportunity to do so.

Please feel free to post new queries or questions, and/or reply to ones already posted. All you have to do is register a few details, then you will be ready to post your thoughts.

You can post a new query by selecting the tab "new thread". To reply to a post, select that post and then choose the "reply" tab.
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  Discussions  Buddy's question time  Smoking at work...
 Smoking at work
 
Sarah_Ireland
38 posts
www.employmentbuddy.com
Joined
10/2/2006
Smoking at work
Posted: 25 Jun 07 4:48 PM

This week Buddy was asked: One of our employees is claiming that they have a right to smoke at work after the smoking ban comes into force due to the fact that they have been smoking at work for the past eight years. Is this right?

They are also claiming that in any case, smoking is classed as an addiction and they will be able to pursue a claim under the Disability Discrimination Act should they not be able to smoke in the workplace.

 
Sarah_Ireland
38 posts
www.employmentbuddy.com
Joined
10/2/2006
Re: Smoking at work
Posted: 02 Jul 07 10:00 AM

Buddy Says: No, under the Health Act 2006 there is no right to smoke at work once the smoking ban comes into force on 1 July 2007. 

The employee will also not be able to bring a claim for disability discrimination as addiction to nicotine is not covered under the Disability Discrimination Act.

Further Information:

Employers are also under no obligation to provide facilities for smokers. In many cases it will be at the discretion of the landlords of business premises whether to give permission for the erection of shelters.

Should an employee be caught smoking in the smokefree workplace they shall be liable to a fixed penalty notice of £50 (discounted to £30 if paid within 15 days from the issue of a notice) or a fine by a court not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale (up to £200).

For further information and a checklist for employers please visit the smokefree England website at:
 http://www.smokefreeengland.co.uk/what-do-i-do/business.html
 
ACAS have also provided useful guidance at: www.acas.org.uk

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