European Union employers can legally refuse to hire smokers

'Our anti-discrimination legislation for the workplace covers four areas .. Smokers are not included.'

Employers within the European Union may legally refuse to hire smokers, says the governing European Commission. Katharina von Schnurbein, a spokesperson for the commissioner of employment and social affairs, says the EU is not advocating that employers shun people who smoke. However, smoking is not covered by anti-discrimination legislation adopted by the commission, she notes.

"Our anti-discrimination legislation for the workplace covers four areas — age, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation," she said. "Then in general (there are) the rules cover gender and race, and that's it. Smokers are not included in that list. There are a lot of things this doesn't cover - you could say I don't want an alcoholic working for me, whatever." There have been no formal proposals to extend existing anti-discrimination protection to include smokers, von Schnurbein added.

The question arose after an Irish call centre published a job advertisement stipulating that "smokers need not apply." Ireland enacted a smoking ban in enclosed workplaces in 2004. The number of smokers in the 25 European Union (and five EU candidate states) has dropped to 27% of the population of 450 million last year, down significantly from 33% in 2002.

National Union (CA)

Nyári szünet

augusztus közepén az EU is nyári szünetet tart...

Kamatemelés

ECB irányadó kamatrátája

3%

Euvonal

EU border agency begins work in Italy but is delayed in Spain

A rapid reaction team set up by the EU's border agency and aimed at safeguarding the bloc's external borders began work on Lampedusa on Thursday (3 Aug), Italy's interior ministry said.

Three officials from the EU's Frontex border agency arrived on the remote southern Mediterranean island the day before in response to appeals for EU assistance from interior minister Giulia Amato. The European unit is tasked with analysing the migrant landings in southern Italy and with organising joint patrols in the Mediterranean as part of a campaign against illegal immigration. Mr Amato told his parliament that Italy and the EU had a "moral obligation to put an end to the inhuman phenomenon" of illegal immigration, according to Italian daily La Repubblica.

A recently leaked UN report said that organised criminal groups make more than $300 million a year from the savings of illegal immigrants seeking a better life in Europe. Mr Amato added he hoped a summit between EU and African states to discuss the immigration crisis would take place in the next few months.

Frontex delay
However, the Frontex operation that was supposed to have started on the Canary Islands, where help is also badly needed, has been delayed. "Within the next days this operation should be in movement," a commission spokeswoman said on Thursday. "These are issues that concern the budget," she said explaining the delay.

Spanish daily El Pais said that the commission administration caused the delay as it needed to approve the unfreezing of €3.4 million for the operation. As the border agency did not spend its entire budget last year, it is seeking to spend that money instead of the money from this year's budget. The delay is being caused by the commission having to modify Frontex' accounts, a process that can last three weeks, the paper said. EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said in an interview with La Repubblica newspaper on Thursday that Italy, Greece and Malta would begin joint naval patrols before the end of this month.

The boats keep coming
In the meantime, the number of immigrants heading for Europe's borders continues to increase. On Wednesday alone (2 Aug) at least 360 illegal immigrants were stopped in Malaga, Granada, Almeria and the Canary Islands.

In Italy, Mr Amato said that migrant landings in southern Italy almost doubled between 2004 and 2005, from 13,000 to 23,000 - and had already reached 11,000 in the first seven months of this year. When picked up, illegal immigrants are taken into custody for identification procedures and to allow authorities to determine whether they are eligible for asylum.

Many of the thousands of migrants reaching Italy's shores from north Africa are bona fide refugees from conflicts in the Horn of Africa and elsewhere, but the majority are so-called economic refugees seeking a better life in Europe. Italy granted refugee status to 907 migrants and gave 4,375 temporary humanitarian residence permits in 2005, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said, according to French news agency AFP.

Eurózóna munkanélküliség

7,8%

Az eurózónában a munkanélküliség júniusra 7,8 százalékra süllyedt a májusi 7,9 százalékról. Az USA-ban júniusban 4,6, Japánban 4,2 százalék volt az állás nélküliek aránya.