The E-cigarette Dilemma

As an employer of domestic/household staff, you may well have house rules relating to smoking at work. The smoking ban in 2007 made it illegal for people to smoke indoors in a work or public place, but many smokers use the 20 minute rest break, to which they are entitled during a working day of six hours or more, as a smoking break. Employees are not entitled to extra breaks however.

But what is the situation if a smoker in your employ switches to E Cigarettes, or Vaping as it is currently termed?

For the record, e-cigarettes fall outside of UK smoking legislation, and there are no rules as to where and when this is permitted. It is therefore down to you as the employer.

One option is to apply the same rules to e-cigarettes and cigarettes and update your current smoking policy to include e-cigarettes. If you currently do not have such a policy, you can introduce one to include smoking, as defined by legislation and e-cigarettes. Alternatively, implement a new policy to cover e-cigarettes.

The Graham Agency, keeping you informed.

End