NICE advice splits employer groups

News | HSW
01.06.2007

Advice from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on helping working smokers give up to coincide with the smoke-free legislation has polarised employers' organisations.

NICE posted guidance for employers on its website (http://guidance.nice.org.uk/download.aspx?o=425945) just before the restrictions on smoking in enclosed workplaces came into force in Northern Ireland on 30 April. The institute suggested employers should "think about allowing employees to attend stop smoking services during working hours without loss of pay". It also suggested employers ask local stop-smoking services in to offer help on site where there was enough demand from workers.

The suggestion drew terse complaints from two groups representing small businesses, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and the Forum for Private Business. BCC chair David Frost said "the idea that businesses should pick up the tab for an individual's tobacco addiction just shows how far removed from the economic reality of the workplace NICE is."

But the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), representing 200 000 small firms, welcomed the advice, saying making it easy for staff to quit would improve their health and boost business productivity.

"Obviously the healthier your workforce, the more effective they are at working," Mary Boughton, FSB's health and safety chair, told HSW. "I think businesses will look at it and say 'this is something that won't be too much of a burden on the way we work but may be of great benefit to our employees and that will benefit us as well'."

The FSB's positive line was backed up by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). "When you add together time taken for smoking breaks, and time taken off due to smoking-related illness, the few hours of employee time and small amount of money involved in offering this kind of support may well look like an attractive investment," said the CIPD's Ben Willmott.