| Smoking ban takes effect on the 1st July |
| Saturday, 30 June 2007 | |
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From today virtually all enclosed public places and workplaces in England will become smoke free. Employers already have a duty to provide employees with a safe place of work and many organisations have responded to this by making their workplace a smoke free zone or by providing smoking zones or segregating smoking and non-smoking employees. ACAS has issued a new Q&A guide on the employment implications of the smoking ban, and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) issued its own guidelines for employers on steps they can take to assist their employees to give up smoking. The NICE guidance recommends the most effective ways to encourage and support employees to stop smoking. These include providing information on local stop smoking services and allowing workers to attend stop smoking clinics during working hours without loss of pay. According to NICE, employers who provide support could reduce the risk of non-compliance with the law and by promoting healthy living will benefit from reduced sickness absence and increased productivity. It should be noted, however, that employers are under no legal obligation to provide support to employees who want to give up smoking, and similarly have no duty to provide smoking facilities to those who continue to smoke. |