Clocking off plan for smokers ‘unfair’

A lobby group has warned that smokers could be forced out of the workplace because employers are making life increasingly difficult for them.

Forest, which supports people’s right to smoke, believes hiring smokers could become “too much trouble” for employers as Breckland Council, which is based in Dereham, Norfolk, became the latest in a growing number of local authorities considering making workers clock off while they take a cigarette break.

Simon Clark, Forest’s director, voiced his concerns over the new measures.

He said: “Breckland are the latest council to consider – or impose – this clocking off and back on policy. Some have even gone further by imposing smoking bans.

“We don’t have figures but there are quite a few which [are] either having some sort of clocking off policy or a complete no-smoking policy.

“Our concern is that soon smokers will be losing out on jobs because their lives at work will be so complicated that employers will decide it’s too much trouble to employ them.”

Breckland councillors will decide whether to impose the “clocking off” policy at a meeting.

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