Commission clears air on smoking

The European Commission has said its ruling that an Irish company was not in breach of EU law by banning the recruitment of people who smoked did not represent an endorsement of discrimination against smokers.

In a statement yesterday, the commission said it had not given EU employers the green light to discriminate against smokers seeking jobs with their companies. It said the EU was against discrimination of any kind.

However, measures to prohibit discrimination against smokers were matters for individual member states.

The Equality Tribunal said yesterday that smoking was not an issue that was covered directly by equality legislation. However Director Melanie Pine said that the question had been raised as to whether it could be covered by the disability ground. "In other words could you argue that you were being discriminated against because you have an addiction", she said.

In a statement to RTE last night Ms Pine said: "As there has been no case before the tribunal regarding smoking, we cannot say definitively whether or not smoking could be considered indirectly within any of the prohibited grounds such as disability", she said.

The issue arose last week after the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Vladamir Spidla, said that a job advertisement drawn up by an Irish company which said that "smokers need not apply" did not fall within the grounds of EU anti-discrimination legislation.

A British MEP Catherine Stihler had raised the case with the commission of the Irish call-centre company Dotcom Directories, which had advertised for non-smoking workers earlier this year.The commission said that under European law, discrimination in a number of areas - such as discrimination in the workplace on grounds of age, handicap, sexual orientation, religion, race, ethnicity or gender - were prohibited. Discrimination against smokers did not come under the scope of European law.

"While the commission promotes a smoke-free environment in the workplace as a measure to protect both smokers' and non-smokers' health, the commission has strong doubts that it is politically acceptable to discriminate against smokers. People should be employed on the basis of their skills and qualifications and not be excluded from proving their abilities on any grounds," it stated.