Council’s tough smoking policy branded ‘bullying’

Unions and groups hit out at rules cutting time to smoke during work

A new policy that bans council workers from smoking during working hours has been branded “tantamount to bullying”.

Trade unions have also hit out at the Dundee City Council rules, which will mean workers are not allowed to smoke or vape on tea breaks, while travelling between offices or when outside, even if they are not identifiable as council staff.

Anyone caught flouting the new rules could face disciplinary action.

The only time staff will be allowed to smoke will be on unpaid lunch breaks.

Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest, said: “Threatening employees with disciplinary action if they smoke during work breaks or while they’re working out of doors, out of uniform and between locations is tantamount to bullying.

“The council is over-reaching its powers. Policing our lifestyle, as long as it doesn’t have a direct impact on our work or colleagues, is not the business of local government.”

George Barr, convener of the Unite trade union in Dundee, said: “The council should be helping people to give up if it wants to enforce this policy, especially if people could potentially be sacked for smoking.

“This is an attack on people who smoke. It’s not an easy thing to give up – and not everyone wants to either.”

The Dundee branch of the GMB union added: “We will vigorously defend any members who fall foul of this.

“Members should be able to choose what they do in their own time without fear of reprimand.”

A Dundee City Council spokesman said: “There was detailed discussion with trade unions during the formation of the new policy and employees will be able to ask their line managers about the implications for them at the start of this early implementation stage.”

Workers say they doubt whether the policy will be enforceable and claimed it is hypocritical that the council’s pensions fund invests in tobacco companies.

One said: “A lot of the older people are worried they’ll lose their jobs if they get caught, and they’ll lose their pensions – pensions that are in tobacco. It’s ludicrous.”

A spokesman for local government umbrella organisation Cosla said: “Increasingly it is becoming the norm for local authorities and other public bodies to operate a smoke-free policy across their property.

“It is ultimately for each council to decide how they apply such policies but Cosla supports all efforts to reduce rates of smoking as part of a wide range of public health measures for our staff.”