Industry leaders have slammed Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) for issuing threats to retailers.
The anti-smoking lobby group sent registered letters to over 200 hospitality employers earlier this week, claiming that they are under a duty to protect their staff from workplace smoke.
If they fail to do so, ASH says it will use the letters as evidence in future court cases to say the company was fully informed of its obligations.
As part of the campaign, ASH has entered a new partnership with the UK's largest personal injury and trade union law firm, Thompsons. The move has brought outrage from those in the trade, who say they are already well aware of their legal responsibilities.
Chris Compton, chief executive of pub company CC Taverns, said: "This letter was a threat and I object to that. I find it very offensive. I don't like being threatened. We do understand the law and we do protect our staff.
"We have had Charter signs up in our pubs for years and our company was one of the first to be 100 per cent Charter complaint. Plus we have increased the level of ventilation in all of our sites."
Jim Walsh, chairman of the Tadcaster Pub Company, said: "It's just total blackmail. The worst thing for us to do is give into this type of threat.
"This pressure group is ruthless and are intent to get their way and ban smoking in all public places. "We will fight this in the courts."
Deborah Arnott, director of ASH, said: "The time is long past when employers should have known that second-hand smoke is bad for their staff, and bad for the general public.
"We will shortly be announcing further moves to encourage employees whose health has been damaged because their bosses allowed smoking in the workplace to begin legal action for compensation."
The industry's Charter Group, which promotes the use of signage, good ventilation and no-smoking areas where possible, has accused the anti-smoking group of attempting to stampede pubs into banning smoking.
Spokesman Nick Bish said: "We all know our duties as employers to ensure the health and safety of our staff. The industry is well aware of the issue of public smoking and has been very effective in helping to deal with it.
"The industry has made great strides and of course understands that we have further to go. This is just another ASH stunt to gain some air-time on TV and column inches in the newspapers."
Related articles:
ASH warns employers of legal action over smoking in pubs (12 January 2004)