I've never been a regular smoker but I'm tempted to take up a habit now that employers have been advised to give staff time off to quit.
The new guidance from healthcare watchdog the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) reckons that businesses would save money in the long run if they gave smokers paid leave to allow them to attend clinics to help them quit.
It estimates a business with 20 employees, of which typically five would smoke, could spend £66 helping staff to quit and make an overall saving of £350 from increased productivity. Unsurprisingly business leaders aren't convinced by the maths, with the British Chambers of Commerce accusing Nice of being out of touch with reality.
But never mind the costings, isn't this just going to aggravate non-smokers already hacked off by all the time off smokers take on fag breaks? According to one survey published last month, smokers take half an hour off to smoke every working day, which works out at 2.4m hours - or 290,000 working days - lost a year.
The guidance comes in preparation for the smoking ban in enclosed public places in England starting on July 1. No one doubts the health benefits, but with the exception of bars and restaurants, where workers often have to put up with smoky conditions, should employers be made responsible for the unhealthy lifestyle choices of their staff? If the problem is that many NHS smoking clinics are only open in the daytime, isn't the solution to make them open in the evening?
Anyway, I can only assume Nice's solution to Britain's obesity crisis will be giving people time off to attend Weight Watchers. So pass the cake.
