Progressive Meats was charged with an offence for infringing s5(1) of the Smoke-free Environments Act1990 which requires employers to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure there is no smoking in the workplace. This was an appeal against a District Court decision that Progressive Meats had infringed s5(1) in relation to a smoking room it had set up in its meat processing plant. Prior to entering a conviction, the Judge stated a case for the High Court. The question was whether the smoking room came within the definition of "workplace" in the Act.
The majority of Progressive Meats' employees were smokers. Prior to a change in the law relating to the hygiene requirements of the plant, the smokers were able to smoke outside during their breaks. However, the changes in the hygiene requirements made it impossible for smokers to go outside during their breaks, because the cleaning and changing of clothes required to do so would take up all of their available time. To get around the problem Progressive Meats set up a separate smoking room which was constructed to ensure that none of the smoke generated would in any way affect the health of any other worker.
In the District Court decision below, the Judge found that while the smoking room was not an actual core part of the workplace it fell within the extended definition of "workplace", being a common internal area forming part of a workplace. While the smoking room was ancillary, it was just as important for the undertaking of the core business as other facilities such as toilets and stairwells.
In the High Court, Progressive Meats argued for an interpretation of "workplace" which recognised that it was complying with the spirit of the law. The Court rejected this argument because it would have allowed smoking to a greater extent than the wording of the Act allowed. The Court said there was no basis for reading down the Act - if the Act had unfortunate consequences, it was a matter for Parliament to address by amending the legislation. The Court therefore answered the stated question "yes".
This decision was subsequently appealed and upheld by the Court of Appeal (see: Progressive Meats Limited v Ministry of Health (22 April 2008)).
Progressive Meats Limited v Ministry of Health [2006] NZHC 1140; [2006] ERNZ 892; (2006) NZELC 98,487
Government, through its agencies and officials including prosecutors, may seek to enforce its health laws. For example, the government may revoke the license of a retailer that sells tobacco products to minors. These cases may also directly involve the tobacco industry, for example, a government might impound and destroy improperly labeled cigarette packs.
A claim of a violation of a tobacco control law or statute.
Type of Tobacco Product
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Limitations regarding the use of quotes The quotes provided here reflect statements from a specific decision. Accordingly, the International Legal Consortium (ILC) cannot guarantee that an appellate court has not reversed a lower court decision which may influence the applicability or influence of a given quote. All quotes have been selected based on the subjective evaluations undertaken by the ILC meaning that quotes provided here may not accurately or comprehensively represent a given court’s opinion or conclusion, as such quotes may have originally appeared alongside other negative opinions or accompanying facts. Further, some quotes are derived from unofficial English translations, which may alter their original meaning. We emphasize the need to review the original decision and related decisions before authoritatively relying on quotes. Using quotes provided here should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter in any jurisdiction. Please see the full limitations at https://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/about.
"To adopt the construction for which Progressive contends would certainly benefit those employers and workplaces where the majority of employees are smokers and the employer has effective systems in place that prevent injury to non-smoking employees, which is the expressed purpose of the Act. Conversely, it is a construction that would allow smoking to a greater extent than Parliament’s text has expressly permitted. Such construction would result in the wholesale creation of smoking rooms and openly contradict the strict controls (imposed by the Act) on smoking in the workplace. It is the Court’s responsibility to give effect to Parliament’s policy on smoke-free workplaces especially where that policy is so clearly expressed by the words in the Act: see Ding and Ors v Minister of Immigration HC AK CIV-2005-404-004900, CIV-2005-404-003211, 15 August 2006, paras [35] ff especially paras [183] ff. This is not in my opinion a case where the Court, with its limited interstitial legislative authority as interpreter of the expressed will of Parliament, should read down the language of the text and assume that smoking rooms are not prohibited by the Act where the smoking rooms are exclusively for the use of employees who smoke. Such a decision, if justified, will require Parliament to revisit the language with which it has identified the workplace where smoking is explicitly prohibited."
Limitations regarding the use of quotes The quotes provided here reflect statements from a specific decision. Accordingly, the International Legal Consortium (ILC) cannot guarantee that an appellate court has not reversed a lower court decision which may influence the applicability or influence of a given quote. All quotes have been selected based on the subjective evaluations undertaken by the ILC meaning that quotes provided here may not accurately or comprehensively represent a given court’s opinion or conclusion, as such quotes may have originally appeared alongside other negative opinions or accompanying facts. Further, some quotes are derived from unofficial English translations, which may alter their original meaning. We emphasize the need to review the original decision and related decisions before authoritatively relying on quotes. Using quotes provided here should not be construed as legal advice and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel on any subject matter in any jurisdiction. Please see the full limitations at https://www.tobaccocontrollaws.org/about.
Progressive Meats was charged with an offence for infringing s5(1) of the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990 which requires employers to take all reasonably practicable steps to ensure there is no smoking in the workplace. This was an appeal against a District Court decision that Progressive Meats had infringed s5(1) in relation to a smoking room it had set up in its meat processing plant. Prior to entering a conviction, the Judge stated a case for the High Court. The question was whether the smoking room came within the definition of "workplace" in the Act.
The majority of Progressive Meats' employees were smokers. Prior to a change in the law relating to the hygiene requirements of the plant, the smokers were able to smoke outside during their breaks. However, the changes in the hygiene requirements made it impossible for smokers to go outside during their breaks, because the cleaning and changing of clothes required to do so would take up all of their available time. To get around the problem Progressive Meats set up a separate smoking room which was constructed to ensure that none of the smoke generated would in any way affect the health of any other worker.
In the District Court decision below, the Judge found that while the smoking room was not an actual core part of the workplace it fell within the extended definition of "workplace", being a common internal area forming part of a workplace. While the smoking room was ancillary, it was just as important for the undertaking of the core business as other facilities such as toilets and stairwells.
In the High Court, Progressive Meats argued for an interpretation of "workplace" which recognised that it was complying with the spirit of the law. The Court rejected this argument because it would have allowed smoking to a greater extent than the wording of the Act allowed. The Court said there was no basis for reading down the Act - if the Act had unfortunate consequences, it was a matter for Parliament to address by amending the legislation. The Court therefore answered the stated question "yes".
This decision was subsequently appealed and upheld by the Court of Appeal (see: Progressive Meats Limited v Ministry of Health (22 April 2008)).