A couple of questions regarding smoking.

[TEAK36]

As an employer, am I entitled to request that my emloyees do not smoke during working hours?

I manage a very small office of 10 people, and 9 of them are non smokers.The one person who smokes causes lots of friction because he/she reeks of cigarettes and the office now continually smells of cigarette smoke.

I will shortly be employing an 11th person and wondered if it would be legal for me to request that this person is either a non smoker, or does not smoke during office hours.Can I refuse someone employment because they smoke?

[randomer]

I am not a reliable source and can only voice my own opinion on the matter but I would think that this would be classed as discrimination for you to avoid hiring a person due to their smoking. The only thing that I think that you can do would be to make them smoke outside the room if they do not so already. Otherwise I wouldn't have thought that there is much that you can do. Again, this is only based on my opinon and I do not know what laws are in place for this. I would wait for someone who knows what they're talking about to answer your question.

[stoo_pid]

According to this you can...

[stoo_pid]

Not quite the same issue but this link highlights a case of a woman that successfully sued her (previous) employer for constructive dismissal as they failed to ban smoking in the work place...

[stoo_pid]

Sorry Teak, one last link for you.

[gammaray]

You can suggest that in the interests of health and well being of the majority you are now making the work rooms NON smoking. Avoid giving the smoker extra breaks as "fag breaks" because this too can cause resentment amongst the non smokers. The dangers of smoking and passive smoking are now well documented. A smoker shouldn't subject others to the associated risks, and if they chose to kill themselves they should do it in their own time.... just a thought from a life long NON smoker!

[8BALL]

Thank for all your answers.Some good links there Stoo_pid.

My colleague does not smoke in the building, but goes outside the to smoke, so its not as though we are suffering from passive smoking.It just smells really badly of smoke in the office, and this colleague smells awful.If one of my staff really had a bad body odour problem, I would be expected to address this.

[Goodsoulette]

In my place of work you are NOT permitted to smell of cigarettes.

[8BALL]

If you are wondering why my username is different, I am using my wife's computer and forgot to change the login as TEAK36.