On Monday, companies in Wales will become the first to trial a total ban on smoking in their workplaces, although the ban does not take statutory effect on 1 July.

Yvonne Gallagher, employment partner at Lawrence Graham LLP, says: “Thus far the focus has been on the impact of the ban on hotels, bars and restaurants, but the issues are at least as serious in every workplace. The ban will open a can of worms, including claims for unfair dismissal and the prospect of criminal convictions.”

The legislation makes all employers responsible for posting no smoking signs around their premises, and also for enforcing the no smoking policy. Staff who continue to smoke at work in face disciplinary proceedings, the prospect of being fined, losing their jobs, and criminal convictions.

Gallagher adds: “The new law makes it perfectly legal to discriminate against smokers, but unless employers enforce the ban to all levels of staff in a scrupulously fair way, they face the very real prospect of being sued by disgruntled smokers for unfair dismissal or discrimination on some other grounds.”