Incredibly, one small company’s ‘extra holidays for non-smokers’ initiative is still being discussed, ten days after it was first reported in a local newspaper.
This morning I was interviewed by BBC Radio Lancashire. (It was the lead item after the 7.00am news.)
On Friday afternoon, between 4.30 and 6.00pm, I did eleven interviews, back-to-back, for a succession of other local radio stations. (I didn’t beat my record, which is 18 interviews in two hours, but it was a long 90 minutes!)
At least Forest’s voice is being heard. The full list of interviews we have done on the subject in the past seven days reads:
Sky News, Talk Radio, BBC Points West (BBC1), BBC Radio 2 (Jeremy Vine), BBC Radio Essex, BBC Radio Ulster, BBC Radio Cornwall, BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester, BBC Radio Leeds , BBC Radio Stoke, BBC Radio Kent, BBC Radio Shropshire, BBC Radio Lincolnshire, BBC Radio Sussex, BBC Radio Somerset, BBC Radio Cumbria, BBC Radio Jersey and the aforesaid Radio Lancashire.
Hopefully the story will now be put to bed because I’ve nothing more to add beyond what I’ve already said and written.
What did strike me though is that when it comes to speaking out against this type of discrimination only Forest seems willing to step forward.
The same is true of hospital smoking bans. Or the prohibition of smoking during working hours.
The reality is that most so-called libertarians have largely given up defending smokers.
Vaping advocates were also silent on the issue of non-smokers being given four days’ additional holiday to ‘compensate’ them for smokers allegedly taking extra smoking breaks.
That didn’t surprise me at all but it’s worth noting that, to the best of my knowledge, the policy introduced by the Swindon-based recruitment agency targets smokers and vapers.
If you have quit smoking and switched to vaping you still have to go outside for a ‘vaping break’ and that will count against you when it comes to additional holidays.
Only by quitting smoking and vaping will you qualify for the promised perk.
We should be fighting such policies together but whenever smokers are targeted for ‘special’ attention the vaping lobby, normally so vocal, is as quiet as a mouse.
When will vapers, and vaping advocates, wake up to the fact that in the eyes of many people, including employers, vaping is no better than smoking?
For many employers it’s just another form of nicotine addiction.
Failure to address anti-smoker discrimination will surely hasten the day when vapers are treated exactly the same.
In fact, as this latest intervention shows, it’s happening already and the vaping lobby is doing nothing to help us fight it.
PS. I am reminded of this post from November 2018 - Council bans smoking AND vaping during working hours.
Noting that ‘the silence on this story from vaping advocacy groups has been deafening’, I wrote:
My message to vaping advocates is this: be careful what you wish for. When you remain silent (as most of you invariably do) and do nothing to oppose the extension of anti-smoking policies, you actively invite similar policies on vaping ...
Forest will continue to speak out against vaping bans because it’s the right thing to do. Sadly self interest is what defines most ex-smoking vapers today and I have long since given up expecting their support when smokers are attacked and vilified and smoking bans are extended to all working hours (and even non-working hours if you're in uniform) and outdoor public places.
Nothing, it seems, has changed.