smoking

I work for a division of FedEx and recently we were advised that they would be inplementing a company policy stating that there would be no more smoking privledges at our facility. They then went on to advise that we would not be allowed to smoke in our own cars on our lunch break either.I can comply with the "no smoking on company property", but is it legal for them to restrict smoking in our own vehical? I seem to believe legally they must request we be a certain distance from the building, but we do have a quite large parking area. Another point to this would be that last year,during a storm,a fellow employee of mine had a tree fall onto the hood of her car while she was inside working. This caused physical damage and when approached about insurance through the company for the repair cost, she was informed that the car is her personal property, and therfore not the responsibility of the company. How can they now prohibit us from smoking in our "personal property"? Please respond,this is a very critical issue to my peers and myself. Thankyou

It sounds as if they are prohibiting smoking during work hours, and anywhere on their property. Their parking lot is their property.

The best you can do is leave in your car for lunch. If you drive, then you make stops and smoke where you will not be noticed. I noticed that all the FedEx people were across the street smoking when I drove by. Now I understand why. Your friend should have registered the complaint with her own insurance company-not moved it, called the police and made a report, taken pictures and filed a claim. It would have been up to her insurance company to fight Fed Ex for the money if indeed that is their parking lot. Where I work, the parking lot is not considered part of the establishment so if anything happens in the lot, it is not the business' fault. Fed Ex from what I understand is a difficult place to work but the pay scale is higher than most. I would hang tight and play by the rules and smoke my head off when I wasn't there or quit smoking-one or the other.