Smoking in the workplace

[Unregistered]

As everyone knows in the UK you cant smoke in a work or public enclosed space. however for obvious reasons on ships that becomes impractical.

However while if a rec room is a smoking area on board you can avoid it but what about the ECR or bridge, its rare that the bridge has double manning so its maybe only what lingers but certianly the ECR has generally more than one engineer.

so is it fair / right / healthy to be subjected to it when its in a work space that you cant avoid?

rahter than having a crew and an officers rec room should there be a smoking and non smoking one?

where it is possible to avoid but also means your avoiding the social side of things its obviously going to make a trip harder and increase isolation.

as a non smoker its a side that i really hadnt considered before the cadetship and while i can tollerate it its a pain, what are others views on it, and state if your a smoker or not

[Lewis]

You just have to suck it up.
Your not going to make any friends by forcing them out into the cold and wet for a cigarette.

[CharlieDelta]

My company (cruise ships):

Smoking allowed:
In designated smoking room in crew bar
Engine workshop
Crew/officer cabins (except where cabin is shared with a non-smoker)
Designated passenger areas on open decks (for officers/officer status staff) and open crew deck (everyone)
Bridge wings (with open wings), otherwise most ships have small balconies behind the bridge (for Stevenson screens etc)

Everywhere else, including the wardroom, is non-smoking. I think it's a reasonably fair system - nobody needs to work in a smoky area except the guys that clean the smoking room (which usually has a really good extraction system) and those working in the engine workshop.

[gadget123]

All of the cargo ships I have worked on smoking has been pretty much encouraged in every part of the ship. With all of the officers chain smoking nearly all of the time.

Of course whatever the British legislation on smoking is will make very little difference as most ships are registered in Panama, Liberia, Saudi Arabia or some other country where regulations governing where you can smoke is a pretty low priority.

[GuinnessMan]

Is this really appropriate for the anon forum?

When it comes to certain classes of vessel, there is no smoking or non-intrinsic equipment of any kind allowed on deck. For instance, with Tankers, we don't even allow a lighter on board for this purpose, it must be matches. When it comes to Smoking, it differs from when sailing and when in port. At sea, normally, control rooms, workshop, bridge and sometimes cabins can be smoked in, but during cargo operations then only two areas are usually allowed (according to regs, only 3 areas can be "approved") and these are usually the rec rooms and the CCR. Don't try and bend the rules on this (especially on Gas Carriers) cause you stand a very good chance of being kicked off. It wasn't one of my vessels, but I recently heard that a Chief Engineer and a Master were recently both sacked for being caught smoking in their cabins during port operations so it is taken rather seriously by proper companies. As has been said above, British regulations do not apply in International Waters unless you're flying the UK Flag and even then it will fall down to practicality. Would you really demand that someone smoke outside if you're sailing on a Gas Carrier?

[mak]

I'm a smoker and I don't really care if I can't smoke in the ecr or anywhere inside. I prefer going outside and standing in the weather and generally don't smoke in my cabin anyway. However last couple of ships I've been on have been boxboats so not a problem going outside; I imagine it would be quite different on vessels carrying more volatile cargo.

[ETwhat?]

I would have thought that if you work for a british company that they must abide by british employment law regardless of where your working ie the flag of the vessel.

[AlternativeNavs]

From my experience UK registered vessels are smoke free inside. Certainly my company operates a strict smoking policy where smokers are limited to outer deck designated areas only.

As a non smoker that works well for me.

[Unregistered]

From my experience UK registered vessels are smoke free inside. Certainly my company operates a strict smoking policy where smokers are limited to outer deck designated areas only.

As a non smoker that works well for me.

both the vessels I have recently been on have been UK flagged, smoking in the accomodation was allowed on the first ship pretty much anywhere and in the second ship limited to designated areas. Its down to the captains orders.

[Steve]

On RFAs smoking is only permitted in designated areas of open deck. It has been this way since 2006 and is generally accepted without any difficulties.

[gadget123]

I would have thought that if you work for a british company that they must abide by british employment law regardless of where your working ie the flag of the vessel.

But how do you decide who you are working for? You have the ships owner, the ships managers, or the agency you work for? Bearing in mind that there could be several manning agencies employing people on each ship. You could easily have 4 or 5 different employment laws applied on board one ship.

[YoungMariner]

I would have thought that if you work for a british company that they must abide by british employment law regardless of where your working ie the flag of the vessel.

No. The flag laws are the ones applicable, and whatever IMO regulations they are party to. Of course once in port, some of the laws of that state can become applicable, but that is very much a grey area.

[alistairuk]

As a non smoking watch keeper if anyone comes up smoking they get booted onto the bridge wing!! Most people are fairly courteous (including captains) and If you don't smoke won't do it around you - if they do a few subtle hints normally resolves the issue :-)

[Lewis]

Funny how smokers never seem to object about non smokers not smoking
but non smokers are always object to smokers smoking. :P

[ETwhat?]

Funny how smokers never seem to object about non smokers not smoking
but non smokers are always object to smokers smoking. :P

I find plenty of smokers who will complain about non-smokers, normally its 5 minutes later after walking to the bridge and they can speak again rather than sitting in the corner wheazing