How far away are employees supposed to stand while smoking outside of a restaurant entrance?
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How far away are employees supposed to stand while smoking outside of a restaurant entrance?
I work at a small family-owned restaurant and both of our only cooks are smokers who frequently take breaks to sit outside and smoke. The door to the kitchen the steps where they smoke is only a good 3-8 feet away from the front entrance to our restaurant. Often times the kitchen itself reeks of cigarettes and sometimes if
the front door is open for too long, the entrance itself smells as well. I have told my employer that they should stand further away to smoke so it doesn’t hurt business or my lungs but he says that they are fine as long as they aren’t inside the restaurant. I can’t possibly believe that there’s no law regarding a required distance from the restaurant’s entrance. My research regarding NJ law has led me to no answer.
Asked on June 5, 2019 under Employment Labor Law, New Jersey
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 4 years ago | Contributor
The short answer is it doesn't matter what the law does or doesn not say: the employer (the restaurant) can tell them to stand as far away as it likes, since employment is "employment at will" in this country (unless they have written contracts guarantying their employment, which is unlikely). Among other things, employment at will means the employer sets rules at and for work--and those rules can includes going a minimum distance away before smoking. Employees who violate those rules can be terminated (or anything less than terminated: pay cut, suspended, hours reduced, etc.). So if you want your employees to stand further away, tell them to do so on risk of being fired if they won't.
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