Smoking in the Workplace

New research by the British Heart Foundation has revealed that the average smoker takes four, 10 minutes breaks during each working day, costing British Businesses £8.4bn a year in lost productivity.

 

It’s estimated that one in five workers in the UK is a smoker and the research also showed that the average smoker will take almost a day (0.7) more sick leave compared to a non-smoking colleague.

 

It’s been almost 7 years since the workplace smoking ban came into force in the UK, which made it illegal to smoke in all enclosed workplaces including vehicles. Whilst most employers encourage breaks and rest periods, it’s important to ensure that all of your employees are being treated fairly regardless of whether they smoke or not. If the smokers in your workforce are taking additional break periods, then you should also consider whether other members of your team are given the same additional break periods during the working day. The thought of giving all your staff additional break periods may leave employers thinking about their smoking policies and procedures and if they are taking the right approach.

 

There is no employee right to allow additional smoking breaks outside of an employee’s normal break periods and it’s important that managers and business owners set a consistent standard around break periods to ensure that members of the team do not abuse the rules. Often employers will include a smoking policy in the company handbook or team guide that will reinforce the break periods each employee is entitled to during the working day.

 

The research conducted by the British Heart Foundation also highlighted that 7 out of 10 smokers would welcome the support of their employer to help them give up smoking all together. There are many services available to assist with this and often there is no cost to the business. Taking a pro-active approach to your employee’s health and wellbeing can be beneficial to the worker but also for the wider business. Increased staff morale and improved sickness absence levels are just some of the areas that could benefit..

 

Services available

 

Smokefree – www.nhs.uk/smokefree

 

Quit – www.quit.org.uk

 

Electronic Cigarettes

 

In recent years different forms of electronic cigarettes have become popular. These can either be an alternative to smoking or as nicotine replacement, but many questions have been asked about how employers should treat this form of smoking.

 

Currently there is a lack of regulation surrounding electronic cigarettes, although it has been recently announced that they will be licenced as a medicine in the UK from 2016. This leaves an employer to decide on an appropriate policy for the business. There has been little evidence on the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes to date and the British Medical Association have questioned the safety of the chemicals which are used in the devices. Further research is needed to establish the long term safety of these devices and we anticipate further guidelines in the near future.

 

Our view is that business should consider electronic cigarettes within their smoking policy, as part of a wider view about supporting staff wellbeing.  Clearly businesses should respect the rights of individuals who choose to smoke, but also offer alternatives to those who may wish to consider giving up.  If you would like any further advice on smoking in the workplace or how to update your policy, please don’t hesitate to speak to one of the team at Tamar HR.