Smoking worker’s sacking upheld

Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals has found that a company acted lawfully in firing a worker for smoking cigarettes in a restroom, annulling a lower court’s decision that the man should be reinstated, according to a story in the Daily Sabah.

The laborer was fired without compensation from the company for which he had been working for the past seven-and-a-half years after his bosses had accused him of ‘laxity and endangering the workplace’.

The lower court had decided that the company’s argument that the man knew about the rules and ignored the warning signs lacked legality. It ordered the firm to pay four months’ salary and allow him back to work.

However, the Supreme Court of Appeals argued that the firm had taken the necessary actions to ensure all employees knew about the smoking rules and that smoking posed a serious risk to workplace safety due to the presence of flammable material.

Turkey has some of the most stringent anti-smoking laws in the world and the country’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is often at the forefront of anti-tobacco campaigns.

The worker can apply to the Supreme Court of Appeals High Commission for a review of his case.