This week legislation came into force prohibiting smoking in public places in Wales, with similar legislation coming into play in Northern Ireland and England later in the year. Should this bother us as HR professionals? What impact will this have on contracts of employment? More basically, what does the law mean? There are a few surprises in store for us all, says Quentin Colborn.
In many walks of life there is a tendency to put off certain things we don’t really want to face. For many, giving up smoking is one of those things that many look to do at some stage in the future. However with the changes in legislation I suspect many will have to address this sooner rather than later.
I have to admit I come to this topic with a fair degree of bias, I have never been a smoker (and apparently they are the worst to address smoking issues) I am just highly intolerant of leaving somewhere smelling like a dead ashtray!
When smoking first came onto the agenda a few years ago, one reaction was to create defined smoking rooms with the intention of freeing up the workplace from smoke while keeping those employees who smoked with somewhere to go. To my mind these smoking dens were probably an excellent incentive for giving up! These smoking rooms will now have to go, with the result that employees who used them will either have to give up or be cast outside. What is interesting is that not only are employees being sent outside to smoke, but they are not being allowed to stay near the front door.
Smoking in vehicles produces some interesting issues. Firstly there is something strangely British about the regulations relating to signage in vehicles. The legislation is split into four relating to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Somehow we have managed to get in a situation where for these four jurisdictions, we have three different sets of rules! In England, in-vehicle signs have to be 70 mm in diameter, in Wales and Northern Ireland they need to be 75 mm, while in Scotland the size is not specified but there must be a statement displaying the holder of a particular post (e.g. the manager) to whom a complaint may be made by anyone who observes someone smoking. Sounds fine until you cross the border. A sign purchased in England is, strictly speaking, illegal in Wales and Scotland. Then the question is where is the border anyway? Until 1 July it will also be fine to smoke in a vehicle on part of the Severn Crossing – but where does that end?
It will be interesting to see what impact, if any, the regulations have on company car take-up and usage. If the company car could be used by another person – and in reality they all will be – smoking is banned within it at all times. I suspect that if you are a smoker this will become a real issue, but how will employers handle it? I have a suspicion there will be a dual standard approach for some employers whereby work vehicles, such as delivery vehicles, will be enforced as no-smoking vehicles, while the treatment of company cars may be different. I’m not defending this disparity, but I really wonder what will happen to the successful smoking sales manager who is told they can no longer smoke in their car at the weekends.
How do the new regulations affect your organisation? Do you think there will be different standards between different workgroups? Would you take disciplinary action against a successful sales manager in this situation? Let’s have your feedback.
Quentin Colborn is an independent HR consultant based in Essex who advises management teams on operational and strategic HR issues. Quentin can be contacted on 01376 571360 or via : Quentin@qcpeople.co.uk
