Common sense on work breaks?

Last week I was contacted by a researcher from Classic 4FM, inviting me to talk to David Harvey on his show.

Apparently a company CEO in Austria was so incensed at his employees taking smoking breaks that he wants them to make up the time to the company by working longer hours than their non-smoking co-workers. You can read the whole sorry tale here.

Taking the opportunity to stick his oar in also was Dr Brian Maurer of ASH Ireland. Doctor Brian is an unusual specimen, coming as he does from that particular organ. Believe it or not, he does have a humane side and agreed with me on radio one morning that banning smoking outright in cars would be a step too far.

I made my usual points about this being the thin edge of the wedge and wondered whether workers who sit back at their desks and stare at the ceiling from time to time might also be asked to stay back for time wasted. A year ago, though, I was on another station and a caller rang in with his story. He was foreman in a large warehouse and complained that four or five of his lads regularly downed tools and stood at the door having a smoke. He made it sound like an hourly event and pointed out that the others had to work doubly hard to make up for them.

That is probably unfair and I made this point too. Smokers need to be responsible, even though it is not their fault that they are no longer permitted to smoke indoors. So, I took a mature measured approach, saying that neither legislation nor company rules needed to be invoked to sort out this minor problem. Like any issue in the workplace that a management figure has with an individual employee, a simple heart to heart aimed a reasonable compromise is all that is needed.

As an unfortunate fallout from this reasonable approach, we had the unedifying spectacle of your freedom fighter from Forest Eireann and the top man from ASH being in total agreement on the national airwaves. David, the presenter, sensing there would be no kicking or gouging to entertain his listeners, quickly put a stop to the topic and moved on.

But what do you think?