Workplace Smoking Rules in Vermont

General provisions. Smoking is prohibited in all workplaces, except in enclosed, designated smoking areas, pursuant to a written smoking in the workplace policy.

Employers covered. Employers in Vermont with 10 or more regular employees are covered by the state smoking requirements.

Written policy requirements. Covered employers must have a written smoking policy prohibiting smoking throughout the workplace or restricting smoking to designated enclosed smoking areas.

Posting requirements. The smoking policy and a copy of the state smoking in the workplace law shall be posted in a conspicuous location.

No smoking areas. Smoking is not allowed in workrooms of food processing plants.

Smoking is prohibited in buildings or facilities owned or operated by social, fraternal and religious clubs.

In addition, Vermont prohibits smoking in places of public access, many of which are also places of employment. Employers whose businesses are places of public access are required to restrict smoking in all enclosed indoor areas.

Places of public access include any place of business, commerce, banking, financial service or other service-related activity, whether publicly or privately owned and whether operated for profit or not, to which the general public has access or that the general public uses, including buildings, offices, means of transportation, common carrier waiting rooms, arcades, restaurants, bars and cabarets, retail stores, grocery stores, libraries, theaters, concert halls, auditoriums, arenas, barber shops, hair salons, laundromats, shopping malls, museums, art galleries, sports and fitness facilities, planetariums, historical sites and common areas of nursing homes, hospitals, resorts, hotels and motels, including the lobbies, hallways, elevators, restaurants, restrooms and cafeterias.

Restrictions against smoking in places of public access include buildings owned and operated by social, fraternal or religious organizations when used by the members of those organizations and their guests and any facility that is rented for a private function for which arrangements are under the control of the event sponsor; designated smoking areas in workplaces and other places of public access; and areas not commonly open to the public or owner-operated businesses with no employees.

Designated smoking areas. Employers may establish a smoking policy that permits smoking in designated unenclosed smoking areas if the layout of the workplace is such that smoking will not be a physical irritation to any nonsmoking employee in the workplace and three-fourths of the employees in the workplace agree.

Formerly, a restaurant, bar, cabaret, hotel or motel could allow smoking on the premises by designating all or part of the public areas of those facilities as smoking areas. As of July 1, 1995, only businesses with a cabaret license may designate smoking areas.