Employees

Your Right to a Smoke-Free Workplace

Employers must protect their employees from secondhand smoke. Maine’s workplace smoking law states that no smoking is allowed in areas where employees are doing work. Designated smoking areas must not be common areas, and must be enclosed and ventilated. They also must keep smoke from going into the common work area or places where the public are present. Smoking policies must include vehicles used in the course of work. Employers also may ban smoking entirely.

Employers must also supervise the implementation of the policy, or they are subject to a fine of up to $100 per day enforced by the Department of Human Services.

Help Your Employer Adopt a Workplace Program

Many workplaces around the state have begun programs in the workplace, and are enjoying the results of cost-effective strategies. They are finding creative ways to promote healthy, active lives, and they are starting programs that include walking, access to physical activity, eating healthy foods, health screening, and smoking cessation.

Here are some ways employees are urging employers to adopt stronger workplace programs:

• Tell them about the benefits. When businesses seehow they can benefit, they are more likely to respond. Let your employer know about benefits such as higher productivity, less absenteeism and lower costs.
• Tell them about the results. Learn about the success stories of smoke-free policies in other workplaces around the state, and share the results of policies that have included exercise programs, healthy eating habits.
• Tell your employer you want a healthier workplace. A healthy workplace is your right. Maine law requires you to create a smoke-free workplace. But you can let also your employer know you want tougher policies that go beyond the law.
• Identify others who will lend support. Find others in your workplace who will support healthy initiatives, whether it’s smoking cessation, being more active, or eating more healthy foods, and who will help plan the policy and carry it out.
• Gather information about your workplace. Find out about employee smoking habits, existing smoking policies, insurance, fire laws, and legal issues such as regulations or union contracts, and coverage in your company health insurance plan for smoking cessation programs and nicotine patches.
• Get management involved. When management-level employees get behind an idea, it can jump-start interest. Put together a group of representatives from all areas within your company – employees, management, and if appropriate, unions and officially recognized employee organizations.
• Show them the facts. Gather facts about the dangers of tobacco addiction, the dangerous effects of secondhand smoke, and the benefits of healthy programs to employees, communities and business.
• Tell them how easy it is. It’s not difficult to implement a smoke-free policy. When employers follow the guidelines for creating a policy and use templates to create one that will work for them, they’ll see how easy it is to start making achange.
• Say you’ll help. When employers are involved in creating policies and generating new ideas, it makes it easier for employees to agree.

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