WHEN announcing his new policy which gives more annual leave to non-smoking employees, Dom Bryden hoped that other businesses in the area and further afield would do the same.

His aim was to counter-balance the amount of time that employees who smoke spend outside on cigarette breaks for minutes at a time while non-smoking colleagues sit indoors.

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Swindon-based RedheadPR founder Sara Tye agreed with the idea in principle but thought of a different way of giving everyone an equal amount of time off.

She said: "I have taken action on this. I haven’t given extra time off, but I have addressed it in terms of the time taken out of the day smoking.

"I don’t think it’s fair if non-smokers work solidly whilst smokers have three to four breaks within that time.

"I’d rather people work a three or four-day week and got their work done and reduce their breaks.

"Everyone has the right to a break, but wouldn’t it be better for people to have two extra days off a week?

"I’ve always talked to my people about how much time they take to smoke and where they smoke. I’ve never agreed on people smoking outside the redheadPR office.

"They weren’t allowed to smoke outside the back of the office and they had to clean their cigarette ends up too. I implemented a no-smoking zone.

"Fundamentally, everyone has a right to smoke and it’s down to the company, their HR policies and the culture of their business as to how they approach this."