Poll: Should workers who don't smoke be given extra holidays?
A Japanese marketing firm is offering cigarette-free staff six additional days of annual leave.
A MARKETING FIRM in Japan is offering non-smoking staff six extra days of paid annual leave to make up for cigarette breaks taken by smokers.
Tokyo-based Piala Inc recently introduced the scheme after non-smoking employees complained that they were working more than their nicotine-addicted colleagues.
The measure was highlighted by Dublin psychologist Jason O’Callaghan in a column published on TheJournal.ie at the weekend.
O’Callaghan, who claims to have helped people kick the habit, said such a scheme is fairer for non-smokers who tend to take fewer breaks than their colleagues.
“If you look at the numbers for a smoker, with just four cigarette breaks a day, working out at 15 minutes each, that’s one hour a day not working,” he wrote. “It’s starting to sounds like the non-smokers are owed some time off.”
However, while O’Callaghan said the extra holidays could be a good incentive to help workers to quit smoking and improve productivity, he acknowledged that such a scheme would be difficult to implement.
“How do you stop people claiming they are not smoking anymore and just taking the days off?” he asked. “How do you police it and who would do the policing? The Smoke Police?”
With that in mind, we’re asking Fora readers this week: Should non-smoking workers be given extra holidays?
