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Published by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

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Should workers be banned from smoking on breaks?

This poll is over 5 years old
 

Should workers be banned from smoking on their breaks?

Yes
31
No
270

A Scottish council has sparked controversy by banning workers from lighting up during the working day.

Dundee City Council said its revised smoking policy would encourage staff to quit and reduce the number of adult “role models” seen with cigarettes in public.

The policy bans staff from smoking during working hours and applies when they are outside, travelling between offices and on tea breaks - meaning workers can only smoke on unpaid lunch breaks.

Unions have claimed the ban is heavy-handed and workers have said they do not know how it will be enforced.

So this week, TFN is asking: should workers be banned from smoking on their breaks?

Join the debate by registering your vote and leaving a comment below.

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Voting in this poll has now closed
 

Comments

0 0
Colin Millar
over 5 years ago
I would imagine this outright ban on smoking is likely to be subject to legal challenge at some point. I suspect the ban won’t hold up when it is.
0 0
David Kerr
over 5 years ago
Knowing Dundee, just wait for a while and see a lot of resignations along with claims for bullying of the wokforce
0 0
Walt Cody
over 5 years ago
Since when has employment become slavery? Aside from the fact that smoking tobacco is a legal activity, countless studies have shown that smokers who smoke are more efficient at both physical and mental tasks than nonsmokers and conversely, the performance of deprived smokers falls off. Check this out: http://dengulenegl.dk/English/Nicotine.html
0 0
Scott
over 5 years ago
It takes anti-smoking hysteria to a new level of bigotry. Yes, I said it.
0 0
Carolus Magnus
over 5 years ago
UK seems not happy with democracy. Good-doers and nannies all around, to lazy to really produce something substantial at work, sitting in NGO-offices producing one nutty paper after the other only to bully their inhabitants.Is there any law allowing to prohibit individual lifestyle and consequently convert the whole country into a collective one like we had in the DDR, before it was freed by Gorbatchov in 1989?No way! Break-time is solely for the employees to recover, belongs to them and not to the employer, and no-one has the right to intrude their privacy. Next, employers control you at home to check whether or not you smoke tobacco while watching TV and start complaining about the beer bottle on the table.UK already has gone far too far over the limits. Please just stop this madness!UK needs another Gorbatchov!
0 0
Junican Watson
over 5 years ago
It has been obvious for some time that the anti-smoker zealots are going to overstep the mark as regards personal freedom. The decision to enjoy smoking tobacco is a personal one, and not one to be decided by bureaucrats. The local authority bureaucrats have rights over their employees ONLY as regards actually doing their jobs and nothing else.
0 0
Joni Masterson
over 5 years ago
nanny state going too far
0 0
Mike twofeathers
over 5 years ago
What workers do on their own time is theirs. Not the company.
0 0
Margaret Durrance
over 5 years ago
one's free time cannot be regulated!
0 0
Charles Hutchison
over 5 years ago
DCC always out of step.Was Dundee not in World War 11 a war won with cigarettes.e.g. Tins from the King.
0 0
Allan
over 5 years ago
Banning employees from smoking during work breaks when they're off the clock, is wrong! As smoking is a legal activity that doesn't impair one's ability to work, last I checked. This is just another example of how way too far antis go, to selfishly take away the personal liberties of those who smoke. With how ridiculously darned selfish that side is, I'm surprised they haven't tried to make the sale of tobacco illegal....
Commenting is now closed on this post