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Last updated: 11 November 1986
Public Service Board Memorandum 86/9055: Towards a smoke-free workplace - Guidelines for achieving smoke-free working environments in the APS
See also: Employment policy Archive |
Please note: This document is for reference purposes only and is no longer considered by the APS Commission to be current. It may contain good practice advice and/or advice on the transitional arrangements between the 1922 and 1999 Public Service Acts.
These guidelines provide the framework for achieving smokefree working environments throughout Australian Public Service offices and associated workplaces by 1 March 1988. They replace previous Board advice on this matter.
2. This memorandum outlines the steps which the Board believes are necessary to ensure that staff are protected from the health hazards and discomfort associated with involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke (passive smoking). The background to these efforts to promote safer, healthier and more pleasant working environments is given at Attachment 1. Where it is possible to achieve a smoke-free working environment before 1 March 1988 the Board encourages agencies to do so.
3. These guidelines apply to all staff employed in APS offices and associated workplaces. In this context, 'associated workplaces' include work premises such as laboratories; foyers; amenities areas, storage areas, loading bays and basement car parks located in office buildings; and agency training complexes. The Board recognises that the problems of tobacco smoke pollution are more pressing in the enclosed office environment than-they are in the comparatively more open industrial environments. For this reason, the elimination of smoking in offices and associated environments is seen as the major priority at present. Of course the Board encourages all staff (non- industrial and industrial) to take advantage of any 'quit smoking' assistance offered by their employing agency.
4. The Public-Service-Board has the clearly stated goal that a non-smoking working environment should be the norm for Australian Public Service employment The Board believes that this goal can, an should, be achieved by 1 March 1998. A review of progress towards this goal will be undertaken towards the end of 1987. If very substantial progress towards eliminating smoking in Public Service work premises has not been made by this time, the Board will consider issuing a Determination (under the Public Service Act) prohibiting smoking in Australian Public Service offices and associated work premises. a Determination would have the effect of making abstention from smoking on these work premises a condition of employment in the Australian Public Service.
5. Advice that the Public Service is moving towards a totally smoke free work environment by 1 March 1988 will be inserted in a prominent place in each issue of the Gazette. It is recommended that similar advice preface any advertisement of APS job vacancies placed in the public press. The policy of a smoke-free working environment is not to be interpreted as allowing discrimination against smokers in terms of employment opportunities. Smokers will continue to compete on merit for recruitment and promotion in the APS; they will be expected not to smoke at work.
6. The generous lead time for the implementation of this stage of the policy will give staff who smoke sufficient time to bring their work-time smoking habit under control and will allow agencies adequate time to establish programs to assist smokers in efforts to cease smoking in the workplace. In the period between the issuing of these guidelines and 1 March 1988 the following steps are strongly recommended.
- As of 1 March 1987, all office space (open plan and enclosed space) should be automatically designated as 'non-smoking', unless agreement is reached, through a process of consensus-seeking decision making involving all staff likely to be affected, that smoking is to be allowed in a specified area. (Consensus, in this context, is defined as a voluntary agreement to which all staff likely to be affected by the outcome are party. It is not to be interpreted as majority decision making.)
- In agencies where smoking has not yet been banned in the following areas (most of which were identified in the Board's 1984 memorandum on Smoking in the Workplace), action to prohibit smoking should be taken immediately: - areas covered by health and safety legislation or where there are clear .safety considerations eg. lifts, areas with flammable liquids; - photocopying rooms, toilets, waiting rooms, libraries, reception and counter areas, and training, interview and conference rooms; and - self-drive Commonwealth vehicles kept by agencies for use by staff generally. It should be noted that official Commonwealth car drivers already refrain from smoking in their cars, and that passengers in Commonwealth cars are also expected to refrain from smoking.
- Agencies should actively encourage and assist: staff to give up smoking. This could include provision of and support for 'quit smoking' activities; paid leave (of up to 8 hours on a once only basis) for attendance at such activities; payment, in full or in part, of the cost of staff attendance at 'quit smoking' courses (up to $100 per staff member and on a once only basis); and the provision of information on smoking and passive smoking. Provision of paid leave for attendance at 'quits' activities and/or payment of the costs involved with attendance at such activities is at the discretion of the agency concerned.
- In the period until 1 March 1988 (the target date for a smoke-tree Public Service) agencies should continue to clearly identify (preferably with signs) areas where smoking is not permitted. Agencies should be clear about the areas where smoking is still allowed. Signs discouraging smoking should be made available to staff. Agency plans for achieving the 1 March 1988 smoke-free target date should be prominently displayed. Agencies should also display the summary of the Board guidelines included as the final page of this document (eg. on noticeboards).
- All food preparation areas on APS premises should be non-smoking areas. Urgent consideration should be given to making all eating areas and canteens on APS premises smoke-free. As an interim measure, smoking should be confined to locations where it will cause least discomfort to others.
- Agencies should immediately enter into discussions with concession holders who have been licensed to sell products on APS premises with the view to prohibiting the sale of tobacco products on APS premises.
- Special attention should be given to equipping supervisors with the skills to cope with problems that may arise in the initial stages of implementing the smoke-free policy in the workplace. Over the next year the Board will be discussing this with agency project officers.
7. Agencies should, where possible, develop strategies for achieving the 1 March 1988 smoke free target date through existing consultative mechanisms such as occupational health and safety committees and consultative councils. It is through consultation and co-operation between management and unions that the best specific procedures for bringing about a healthy, smoke-free working environment will be achieved. Where agencies are not already doing so, they will need to allocate some resources in order to achieve smooth introduction of these initiatives. For example, agencies should designate officers in each major agency location to handle requests and to make recommendations on matters related to smoking at work.
8. Agencies which provide services directly to clients should begin action aimed at stopping smoking in public access areas as quickly as possible. Establishing public access areas as 'smoke-free' will require a certain amount of community education. This will be a gradual process, and strategies for achieving this goal should be developed through consultation between staff, unions and management. As a first step, 'no smoking' signs should be prominently displayed in public access areas, and clients who wish to smoke should be asked courteously to do so outside the building. Staff must use their own discretion as to whether to permit very distressed clients to smoke on the premises; such permission should only be granted in exceptional circumstances . In this context, normal training of counter staff may need to include consideration of how to implement the smoke-free policy in public access areas. The aim is that by 1 March 1988 clients will accept that they cannot smoke on Australian Public Service premises, in the same way that people now accept that they cannot smoke in cinemas or on public transport.
9. Some agencies may encounter difficulties in eliminating tobacco-smoke pollutants from air-conditioning systems in buildings occupied by more than one organisation. Where such accommodation is shared with other APS agencies, the onus is on those agencies to co-operate with the department or authority initiating the 'smoke-free' policy, preferably by introducing similar policies themselves. Where agencies share accommodation with non-APS organisations, APS agencies should initiate discussions on achieving the goal of a smoke-free working environment with other tenants. The Public Service Board is currently discussing with the Department of Local Government and Administrative Services the feasibility of ensuring that, as far as possible, when agencies lease accommodation in the future provision of air-conditioning free from tobacco smoke pollution is specified in the lease.
10. The Public Service Board will assist departments and authorities to achieve a non-smoking working environment. To this end the Board, in conjunction with the Department of Health, is running workshops and seminars for those officers in Public Service agencies who have operational responsibility for the issue of smoking in the workplace. The first workshop will be held in November 1986 in the ACT, and similar workshops will be run later in State capitals. Subsequent workshops and seminars will be held during 1987 to discuss progress towards the goal of a non-smoking working environment in APS employment by 1 March 1988.
11. The contact officer for further information on the contents of this memorandum is Ms Lorna Tilley, telephone number (062) 717335.
Meryl Stanton
Acting First Assistant Commissioner
Working Environment and Conditions Division
Attachment 1: Background to the new guidelines for achieving smoke-free working environments in the APS
In November 1980 the Department of Health, in conjunction with the Board, issued a memorandum recommending that action should be taken to limit or prohibit smoking in a number of enclosed places, including the workplace (PSB reference 77/1178). In December 1984 the Board issued a second memorandum, noting growing concern about the effects of passive smoking on health (PSB reference 81/2739). In this memorandum the Board indicated that a non-smoking working environment should become the norm in Commonwealth employment and recommended, as minima, certain steps to discourage and reduce the incidence of smoking in the workplace. Over the last two years most agencies have adopted at least some of the recommendations contained in this memorandum. A number of agencies have successfully adopted stronger measures.
2. Evidence of the dangers to health associated with involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke ('passive smoking') has continued to accumulate, and is now accepted by health authorities in Australia and world wide.
In May 1986 the 39th World Health Assembly adopted a resolution urging 'those Member States which have not yet done so to implement smoking control strategies ... [to] ensure that non-smokers receive effective protection, to which they are entitled, from involuntary exposure to tobacco smoke in enclosed public places ... and places of work and entertainment'. This resolution was co-sponsored by the Australian Government.
In July 1986 the National Health and Medical Research Council released its report Effects of Passive Smoking on Health. The report, which reviews the wide range of scientific literature available on this subject, found that 'absorption of the constituents of tobacco smoke in significant amounts by passive smokers has been clearly demonstrated'. It concluded that passive smoking can cause acute irritant effects in the upper and (to a lesser extent) lower respiratory tracts in non-smokers, and that passive smoking may also increase the risk of occurrence of lung cancer in non-smokers. The report noted findings that passive smoking is associated with a moderate increase in coronary heart disease mortality in non-smokers, although further research is needed in this area. The Council noted that 'a major source of exposure to passive smoking is the workplace, where individuals experience least control over the air quality of their immediate surroundings', and that 'typical indoor ventilation is inadequate to remove [the chemicals released by the lighted cigarette]'.
On the basis of the report findings the Council recommended, as a means of protecting the health of non-smokers, the 'development of procedures, regulations, or laws facilitating or requiring the restriction or prohibition of smoking:
- within the work environment. The available evidence indicates that exposure to passive smoking is, on average, substantially higher at work than at home. An atmosphere free of tobacco smoke should be regarded as the workplace norm. Employers should be reminded of obligations to provide a safe working environment
- in enclosed public places, hospitals, restaurants and transport.'
3. The pressure on employers to provide a healthy, smoke-free working environment is intensifying. Community concern over the potential hazardous effects of passive smoking on health is growing rapidly. Non-smokers are increasingly unwilling to suffer either the dangers or the discomforts (acute to many people) associated with exposure to tobacco smoke. The Board has received representations, from both individual staff members and groups of staff, requesting that positive action be taken to contain, reduce or prohibit smoking in the workplace.
4. The ACTU (Australian Government Employment Section) has a policy that employers should provide, as a condition of service, a workplace containing no tobacco smoke and air conditioning containing no tobacco smoke. In addition, several individual unions also have policies intended to protect their members from the hazards and discomforts associated with passive smoking.
5. In March this year the Board surveyed Public Service agencies to assess progress towards the goal of a non- smoking working environment. Results of this survey are available from the Board. In summary, 80% of agencies responded. Approximately 70% of these had smoking policies in place, and of these 90% had prohibited smoking in one or more areas and 60% had policies explicitly stating that the agency was seeking to achieve a non-smoking working environment. However, despite some promising moves in individual agencies towards discouraging or eliminating smoking in certain locations (eg. in training and conference rooms) progress overall has been slow.
6. Passive smoking in the workplace is an important issue from the perspectives of occupational health (and the related work, social and personal costs), workplace efficiency and employee relations generally. Forthcoming National Occupational Health and Safety legislation is expected to define more explicitly the Commonwealth 'duty of care' with regard to the health and safety of its employees, and is therefore likely to place increased pressure on agencies to provide healthy working environments. In 1984 the Attorney General's Department advised that there was no legal impediment to to a total prohibition of smoking in Australian Public Service offices. In August 1986 the Attorney General's Department further advised that the Secretary of a department has the power to ban smoking on work premises in any circumstances where the health or safety of officers or employees, or the proper functioning of the department, could be affected by it. The Attorney General's Department has also advised that if the Secretary were to form the opinion that a prohibition on smoking was necessary to preserve the health and safety of officers and employees in the department a ban on smoking should be issued.
7. On 10 July 1986 the Department of Health adopted a policy extending existing smoke-free areas to include all office space in the Department as of 1 December 1986. The Department of Health has developed educational material, counselling strategies and training programs designed to bring about the successful introduction and maintenance of its new policy. Officers from the Board are working with officers from the Department of Health to enable agencies to have the opportunity to learn and benefit from Health's experience in this area - for example, by the distribution of relevant material through existing networks of project officers.
