MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

EU approves 'no smoking' job advert

Pro and anti-smoking groups alike have criticised a European Union ruling that companies can legally refuse to employ smokers.

The European Commission said the EU's wide-ranging anti-discrimination laws did not apply to tobacco users. It was responding to concerns raised about a job advertisement placed by an Irish e-commerce firm which warned "smokers need not apply".

Vladimir Spidla, the commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities, said the advert did not contravene EU legislation.

In a written answer, quoted by the Financial Times, he said: "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.

"A job advertisement saying that 'smokers need not apply' would not seem to fall under any of the above mentioned prohibited grounds."

Ian Willmore, a spokesman for anti-smoking group Ash, believes refusing to employ smokers is "thoroughly bad public policy".

He said: "We are not interested in discriminating against people because they are smokers. We are interested in helping them quit. Our advice to employers would be not to do that unless there is a clear occupational reason why smoking is not possible.

"We are not an organisation that exists to persecute smokers. We are an organisation that exists to reduce the amount of harm that smoking does." But he added that encouraging employees to quit could cut days lost to sickness and boost productivity.

Simon Clark, director of pro-smoking campaign group Forest, told the FT: "We 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."

Susan Anderson, the CBI's director of human resources, said: "While employers are free to ban smoking in the workplace for health and safety reasons, it is unlikely they would want to discriminate against smokers."