Written by whom? How long had you been on the job? Did the offence occur during your probation period? If there are existing municipal, regional, provincial / state, or federal government regulations that ban smoking in certain workplaces or while performing certain duties, yes, you can be fired or disciplined for violating a regulation that could result in their being fined or closed. If you were smoking in a designated non-smoking area at you place of work, particuarly if it was labelled so for safety reasons (e.g., fuel storage area or around the pumps in a gas station), you could be fired. An employee, particularly one who is still working under probation, should be terminated if he or she endangered the safety of their workplace or their co-workers by their actions. If you were told that it was not permitted to smoke on the job or on company premises, you could be fired or disciplined if you ignored company policy. Regulations should be written down for clarity, but not every employer does so. Personally, I prefer working with companies that make things clear, in writing, to reduce the number of quibbles over what might be deemed an 'arbitrary' decision concerning my employment. If you were working in a unionized workplace, your workplace would have a written contract describing when an employee can be fired. A contract and a union are always a good thing to have on your side. (If you alienate both the union and the company, you employment status becomes precarious. I have seen a co-worker try and pull a fast one on the union and the employer - the result was a quick trip to the unemployment line.) If your workplace is non-unionized or has no effective employee's association, the company can hire and fire you at their pleasure, so long as they do not violate any labour laws in the process. You have not told where you live, so we cannot know what help labour laws can provixde, if any.

Yes, the bottom line is an employer can basically fire you for any reason. If he/she doesn't have a reason they can invent one. Employers can even discriminate against lifestyle away from the workplace. Sure there are laws in place but employers know how to get around these laws. In some states employers have the legal right not to hire smokers. Some companies and public agencies seek to control private behaviour by firing people who smoke or refusing to hire smokers including those who smoke only outside the workplace. In some states, such as Georgia an employer can reject smokers and insist that they refrain from lighting up on and off the job. That policy may be difficult to enforce, but it's legal if workers are adequately informed when they take the job. Smokers and even non-smokers are getting fed up with the propaganda and there's lots of it out there. Edit - RJTRIES - Of course it's against US labor laws but we both know that reasons are invented for dismissal. Every state has different laws as with Canadian provinces. Bottom line if they want to fire you they will find a way. As an employer I follow the rules and protect the workers but not everyone does that.

If you sell or make fireworks you may get canned;

I have been in law enforcement for 40 years. i am a smoker. of all the years , working in a police vehicle, i have smoked. the only exception is a non-smoking partner. i would not smoke if i had a non-smoking partner. today, we have a new police chief that is an ex-smoker. we now have written orders that forbid us from smoking in police vehicles. i understand that we are driving government-owned vehicles, paid for by the tax payers. i understand all of this. what i don't understand is why the dramatic change, now? lets look back in time and the final outcome of a police vehicle, that has been taken out of service. as a general rule, most marked police vehicles are in service for around 100,000 miles. if you think about it, thats like 300,000 miles in a normal automobile. police vehicles are subjected to all the extremes, known to man. in other words, a lot of tired steel ready for the junk yard. you do not see many old, retired police vehicles on the street. the ones that have a little life left, usually end up in a tote the note car lot. and, guess what? most people, who do buy retired police vehicles, are smokers!! where is the logic in this order? i know it is an order. i obey that order. i really don't think an officer would be terminated for smoking in a police vehicle. police officers have smoked cigars, cigarettes, and chewed tobacco for many, many years. its a long tradition. a final note.........my police vehicle is my office on wheels. i work solo, not bothering anyone. the windows are kept down, when smoking. i clean my vehicle every other day, including all the glass. my vehicle is always in tip-top condition. i use febreeze daily, to control the odor. yes, maybe i should quit. but, this is a personal choice. i will continue to fight the elements, to smoke. standing outside in inclimate weather has become a new way of life. to answer your question. you most likely can be terminated for violating a non-smoking policy, whether it be in writing or oral form. its a changing world and i do not believe tobacco is going to have the position, in society, that it once had. end

Yes. But it would be very difficult for the company you work for to substantiate their position even though someone fired you after seeing you smoking. Without a written policy the company you work for still has to be accountable during a hearing with the labor board. It is likely that the labor board would throw your case out and hold the company responsible for their inaction rather than holding you responsible for your action.