Employees of a Scottish council have been banned from tobacco smoking during the working day, according to a story in The Scotsman.
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.
However, The Scotsman said it was unclear how the policy would work in practice given the council had been unable to answer questions about what would constitute a breach of the rules.
And the trade union, Unison, which represents council staff, said it had not agreed to the policy.
A Dundee City Council spokeswoman said the council had revised its smoking policy because it was working to protect the health of employees and promote positive health messages across the wider community, in line with an agreed Our People Strategy and health and wellbeing framework.
A key part of that approach involves discouraging children and young people from taking up smoking. “One way to assist that is to reduce the number of adult ‘role models’ who can be seen smoking,” she was quoted as saying.
The council said the policy mirrored recent changes brought into effect by other councils and by NHS [National Health Service] Tayside.
It said there had been ‘detailed discussion’ with trade unions.
But a spokesman for Unison said it had not been consulted fully.
“There are clear aspects of this policy we could not agree to,” he said.
“We are usually very supportive of anti-smoking policies. However, people who do smoke need to be able to take breaks and get support from their employer to help them give up.”
Smoke-hos banned
