Spidla: discrimineren rokers bij sollicitaties toegestaan (en) - Main contents

A European company has the right to refuse employment to smokers, European Commissioner for employment and equal opportunities of Employers Vladimir Spidla i has confirmed.

Scottish Labour MEP Catherine Stihler brought the issue to the commission after Irish call-centre company Dotcom Directories had advertised for a worker but said smokers needed not apply.

"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 small office here and it would make things unbearable for the other staff", said Philip Tobin, director of Dotcom Directories in a radio interview.

EU legislation 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 ... prohibited grounds," the commissioner stated in a written reply to the MEP, quoted by the Financial Times.

"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, director of the British pro-smoking pressure group Forest to the paper.

In December last year the World Health Organisation became the largest international employer to ban the hiring of smokers in an effort to promote its public health campaign against tobacco use.