Calls for businesses to help smokers quit
16 May 2007
A LANCASHIRE lawyer is urging local businesses to help support employees that want to quit smoking.
Sadiq Vohra, a partner and employment law specialist at Preston law firm, MWR Solicitors, is calling on businesses to support employees to quit smoking following a recent report by NHS experts, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
NICE has suggested a number of new schemes that businesses should adopt including giving employees paid sick leave for them to attend smoking classes to help employees quit smoking prior to the start of the smoking ban in England on 1 July.
The new smoking ban will prohibit smoking in all enclosed public places and areas of work. It follows similar regulations that have been introduced in Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Sadiq commented: “It is important for employees and their representatives to work with employers and to encourage them to provide support which can help them give up smoking.
“Some of the recommendations from NICE suggest that employers should allow staff to attend anti-smoking clinics in work time, which in the long term could be beneficial to both the employer and the employee because of the clear health benefits of quitting smoking, which not only could lessen the chance of an employee falling ill but an increased productivity and well being in the workplace.
“It is also estimated that employees who quit a 20-a-day cigarette habit could save nearly £2,000 a year!”
Experts suggest that smoking costs British business £5billion a year due to loss in productivity, absenteeism and fire damage.
