No smokers please as Brussels refuses to stub out job prejudice
No smokers please as Brussels refuses to stub out job prejudice
By Andrew Bounds in Brussels
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: August 5 2006 03:00 | Last updated: August 5 2006 03:00
European employers are free to refuse a job to smokers, clinching tobacco users' status as the continent's last pariahs.
The European Commission, which has presided over a vast array of anti-discrimination legislation in the past six years, says its laws did not cover tobacco users.
The position was revealed when Catherine Stihler, European parliament deputy, tabled a question to the Commission on behalf of a pro-smoking constituent alarmed at reports that an Irish call-centre company had advertised for staff, warning "smokers need not apply".
Mrs Stihler's query about whether the advert breached European law was answered by Vladimir Spidla, the commissioner for employment and equal opportunities, who said it did not. "EU anti-discrimination law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, disability, age, sexual orientation and religion and belief in employment and other fields," the Czech commissioner told Mrs Stihler.
"A job advertisement saying that 'smokers need not apply' would not seem to fall under any of the above mentioned prohibited grounds," he added in a written reply vetted by the Commission's lawyers.
Mrs Stihler, a British Labour party MEP, asked her question after the Irish company, Dotcom Directories, placed such an advert in May.
The Irish government had said it did not breach any laws.
Philip Tobin, the director of Dotcom Directories, said smokers were antisocial and took too much sick leave.
He told Irish radio in May: "If people are smoking on a coffee break or in their own time, they come back into the office and they stink. We have a very small office here and it would make things unbearable for the other staff. To be honest, if these people can ignore so many warnings and all that evidence, then they haven't got the level of intelligence that I am looking for. Smoking is idiotic."
Forest, the UK pro-smoking pressure group, said it was distressed but not surprised by Mr Spidla's view.
"We all know employers discriminate on all sorts of grounds, from being too fat to the wrong colour hair. But for it to be so overt is depressing and shows that smokers are fair game,"said Simon Clark, Forest'sdirector.
The World Health Organisation this year announced it would no longer hire smokers to work at its Geneva headquarters.
Mr Spidla, a veteran anti-communist and anti-smoker, is studying whether to introduce legislation to protect workers from the effects of passive smoking. That could one day make it too risky for businesses to employ those who indulge.
By Andrew Bounds in Brussels
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Published: August 5 2006 03:00 | Last updated: August 5 2006 03:00
European employers are free to refuse a job to smokers, clinching tobacco users' status as the continent's last pariahs.
The European Commission, which has presided over a vast array of anti-discrimination legislation in the past six years, says its laws did not cover tobacco users.
The position was revealed when Catherine Stihler, European parliament deputy, tabled a question to the Commission on behalf of a pro-smoking constituent alarmed at reports that an Irish call-centre company had advertised for staff, warning "smokers need not apply".
Mrs Stihler's query about whether the advert breached European law was answered by Vladimir Spidla, the commissioner for employment and equal opportunities, who said it did not. "EU anti-discrimination law prohibits discrimination on the grounds of racial or ethnic origin, disability, age, sexual orientation and religion and belief in employment and other fields," the Czech commissioner told Mrs Stihler.
"A job advertisement saying that 'smokers need not apply' would not seem to fall under any of the above mentioned prohibited grounds," he added in a written reply vetted by the Commission's lawyers.
Mrs Stihler, a British Labour party MEP, asked her question after the Irish company, Dotcom Directories, placed such an advert in May.
The Irish government had said it did not breach any laws.
Philip Tobin, the director of Dotcom Directories, said smokers were antisocial and took too much sick leave.
He told Irish radio in May: "If people are smoking on a coffee break or in their own time, they come back into the office and they stink. We have a very small office here and it would make things unbearable for the other staff. To be honest, if these people can ignore so many warnings and all that evidence, then they haven't got the level of intelligence that I am looking for. Smoking is idiotic."
Forest, the UK pro-smoking pressure group, said it was distressed but not surprised by Mr Spidla's view.
"We all know employers discriminate on all sorts of grounds, from being too fat to the wrong colour hair. But for it to be so overt is depressing and shows that smokers are fair game,"said Simon Clark, Forest'sdirector.
The World Health Organisation this year announced it would no longer hire smokers to work at its Geneva headquarters.
Mr Spidla, a veteran anti-communist and anti-smoker, is studying whether to introduce legislation to protect workers from the effects of passive smoking. That could one day make it too risky for businesses to employ those who indulge.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 11:02 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home