While the European Commission recently launched consultation of the social partners on second-hand smoke (see our dispatch No. 090028), the Supreme Court of the Netherlands decided, on January 12, 2009, that a former clinic employee, aged 45, should receive compensation for her asthma worsened by her exposure to smoke. For two years, in 1999 and 2000, she was the secretary of two medical specialists, who were also heavy smokers. (Ref. 090078)
Because the
clinic accepted the fact that these two specialists smoked on their workplace
without installing special ventilation, it has to pay. The complainant obtained
from the doctors they only smoked in their offices, but they often left the
door open and went to their secretary’s office with their cigarette in their
hand. The employer, the Isala Klinieken, affirmed that it wasn’t attested that
the complainant’s asthma didn’t worsen on its own, naturally. The clinic appeal
to a first ruling
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