IIt is not always easy to know what our rights and obligations are regarding vaping in French companies. In order to help you clarify the subject, Master Virginie LANGLET, a lawyer at the Paris Bar prepared a real file on the subject for juritravail.com that we offer you here.
CAN YOU VAPOTE IN FRENCH COMPANIES?
Concerning vaping in a company, the law of "modernization of our health system" added theprohibition to vapote (Article L 3513-6 and L 3513-19 vs. Public Health). This prohibition would only enter into force after the publication of the decree of application which fixes the conditions of application, but not yet published. However, it is advised that the employer also provide for internal regulations the ban on the use of electronic cigarettes, in application of its obligation of safety in the matter of health of the workers.
In addition to mentioning the ban on smoking and vaping in the rules of procedure, the employer must inform employees by means of visible signage on company premises.
The employer is required to enforce the ban on smoking or vaping in the company, in application of the safety obligation imposed on him in terms of employee health. Also, it must be able to sanction the employee who does not respect this general prohibition. Sanctions can go as far as serious misconduct, depending on the risks incurred by other employees (for example: fire created by the explosion of an electronic cigarette).
The employer can rely on the clause of the internal regulations providing for the sanction linked to the ban on smoking or vaping, but this is not an obligation. Indeed, it is not because the prohibition of smoking is not included in the internal regulations that it is inapplicable in the company and therefore that the employer cannot apply a sanction.
The case of cigarette breaks (or vaping) is a real problem for the employer who must bear to see his employees take into practice every hour a break of 10 minutes, while this is not what the law provides. All employers are confronted with this decline in productivity, with this type of behavior that employees, outside of any framework or authorization, which are harmful to productivity (smokers and non-smokers, who take the opportunity to take a break in addition to for that matter).
If it is accepted that the employee must benefit from legal break time in the day pursuant to Article L 3121-16 of the Labor Code, the law provides for a maximum of 20 minutes break for 6 working hours, except lunch break. However, smoking 
or vape outside the legal or conventional break time is not considered as actual working timeexcept in the case of a more favorable decision by the employer.
The employer can tolerate these regular and unannounced breaks, but by asking the employees to debond when they are absent from their workstation, to be able to count down this time of break that they arbitrarily granted themselves of their actual working time . In the absence of agreement or contrary use, the employer would be in a position to punish an employee who multiplies his outings, if repeated absences undermine the quality of his work or his productivity, which in practice is inevitable.
The ban on smoking does not apply in reserved spaces made available to smokers in specific places provided by the employer. This creation of locations is not an obligation. It is a simple faculty which falls under the employer's decision.
The latter can provide a specific space for vapers. But no text specific to vapers specifically mentions any location for them. If he decides to create within the premises of the company a smoking location, the employer must ensure that it is indeed a closed room, used for the consumption of tobacco and in which no service is provided (article R 3512-4 c. public health) . This project must be submitted for the opinion of the members of the CHSCT, or staff representatives, failing that. This consultation must be renewed every 2 years.
The employer must ensure that certain specific obligations are respected. For example, these reserved spaces must not constitute a place of passage. No servicing and maintenance work may be performed there without the air being renewed, in the absence of any occupant, for at least 1 hour. The employer must also be able to produce a maintenance certificate for the mechanical ventilation device during any check-up, and to have its regular maintenance carried out. This is a real constraint for the employer, who is therefore not obliged to do so.
