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A SUPERVISOR at a firm with a strict no-smoking policy has been sacked for allegedly lighting a cigarette in his car as he left at the end of a night shift. A video camera at the factory - which supplies printed wrapping materials to the tobacco industry - recorded a flash of light in the car.
John Dixon, 54, denies the misdemeanour and is taking a claim of unfair dismissal to an industrial tribunal. The night-shift supervisor, who worked for 11 years at Parkside Flexible Packaging at Stourton, Leeds, said yesterday: "I am furious about losing my job and I will be fighting to get it back. What they have done is petty. I am angry that they didn't raise this with me until weeks after they had seen the video film."
Mr Dixon, from Outwood, near Wakefield, is a smoker, but denies smoking at the time. Even if he had been, he said, he was in his own vehicle and would have been off the site in seconds: "I haven't got a clue what the flash was and I have told them this, but they have decided I lit a cigarette."
Mr Dixon was dismissed after being confronted with the video and subsequently lost an appeal for reinstatement. The company declined to comment yesterday. The dismissal for gross misconduct was criticised as "overzealous" by the anti-smoking campaign ASH. Amanda Sandford, a spokesman, said: "He was clearly on his way out of company premises. What possible harm could he inflict on anyone? It seems very extreme."
John Goodridge, branch officer of the Graphical, Paper and Media Union, which is supporting the tribunal claim, said: "First of all he denies he was smoking and, even if he was, the infringement was so slight. It was 20 minutes after he had finished his shift, he was in his car and it can only have been two or three seconds before he got through the gate."
No specific legislation has been introduced to ban smoking at work but, under the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act, an employer has to ensure the welfare of employees, who could appeal to the Health and Safety Executive if they believed themselves to be at risk. The employer would then be legally responsible for eliminating the risk.
Employers are able to prohibit smoking if they choose, but the HSE recommends provision for smokers in a room set aside for the purpose.
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