Regional Support for Smokefree Issues

By far the most comprehensive local support for Auckland employers wishing to establish a Smokefree compliant workplace, both physically and in its documentation, is to ask for help from the Auckland Regional Public Health Service. Information is found by following the link:

Auckland Regional Public Health Service-Smokefree

At this site you will find documentary resources to create a company policy and a company smokefree statement.

What are the aims of the smokefree law?

The aims are to:

• protect all workers and the public from second-hand smoke
• reduce the harm caused to individuals by their smoking
• further restrict minors (under 18) access to smoking products and prevent negative       influences on young people
• further promote a smokefree (auahikore) lifestyle as the norm.

What do the smoke free laws mean for employers?

The following website provides very useful information for employers:

http://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/preventative-health-wellness/tobacco-control/smokefree-law

The Ministry of Health is responsible for the laws relating to smoking in the workplace.

With very limited exceptions, the law requires employers to ensure that workplaces are smokefree by taking 'all reasonably practicable steps'.

Reasonably practicable steps might include:

• display of smokefree signs in the workplace
• reference to the smokefree policy in workplace employment agreements and recruitment policies
• notifying service contractors of the smokefree policy
• training managers and supervisors on what to do if someone smokes in the workplace.

If smoking occurs in a workplace and the employer has failed to take such steps, an employee may lodge a complaint with the Ministry of Health.

More detailed information and guidance on the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act 2003 can be found at the website above.

Workplaces

From 10 December 2004 smokefree restrictions were expanded so that all indoor workplaces became 100 percent smokefree, including offices, warehouses, factories, ‘smoko’ rooms, taxis, internal areas of trains and ships, prisons and travel premises such as terminals and passenger lounges.

Limited exceptions apply for some work vehicles and home-like environments such as individual prison cells, rest homes, hospitals, hotel rooms and residential care facilities.

Resoures for smokefree premises

To assist in communicating the “smokefree” message in premises and organisations, smokefree stickers, signs and pamphlets can be ordered from the local public health service above. A list of the items available can also be viewed at the Ministry of Health’s “Health Education Resources” website, at www.healthed.govt.nz. There are a number of items available under the search topic of “smokefree”.

• Smokefree Environments (PDF, 205.2 KB)
  

  Original Descriptor of when a Smokefree area is determined.

• Smokefree Policy Development (PDF, 168.3 KB)
  

  Statements to enable an employer to develop a simple policy.

• Organisational Statement (PDF, 118.3 KB)
  

  A useful precise statement to comply with the Act.