Germany Plans to Ban Smoking Brakes at Workplaces

February 2nd, 2012 00:00

Employers in Germany have started a campaign against smoking in the workplaces, both indoors and outside in order to increase productivity. German workers are not allowed to smoke at their workplaces, but a ban would stop them from doing so. Being at work they often go outside to smoke and chat with colleagues.

The campaigners’ main worry is not so much people’s health but the time and money is wasted and lost for the company, unless they demand employees to use a market time for short breaks. “Frequent smoking breaks cost employers money, and they greatly affect the working process. For instance Sweden firms have long ago ended with smoking breaks at work,” stated the president of the German Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, Mario Ohoven. “Smoking breaks are considered as the discrimination against non-smokers who continue to work while smokers light up outside,” said Ursula Frerichs representative of the Federation of Mid-Sized Business Entrepreneurs in Germany.

Companies are greatly affected as they can bear considerable losses. According to a current survey realized by Hamburg University, the unproductive time spent by the workers on smoking during labor time cost German companies about 28 million euros ($35.9 million) per year. The European Commission plans to tighten the anti-smoking regulation, seeking a full ban at the workplace. However the new guideline, which is already in the process, is unlikely to be adopted before the 2015. At present any smoking breaks in Germany are managed differently by individual companies. Collective bargaining issues for example in the automobile sector permit employees to smoke once or twice every hour without any decrease in salary.

The Germany’s Federal Labor Agency, which has100, 000 workers on its payroll, demands staff to utilize a time clock each time when going to smoke. The campaign against smoking breaks didn’t produce much approval. “I was in favor of a tough legislation that will protect non-smokers at their workplaces. But prohibiting all smoking breaks during labor time would be a straight step towards a dictatorship of non-smokers,” Karl Lauterbach, a senior opposition Social Democrat health expert stated in an interview. “I think that there is no need for additional federal regulations on smoking at the workplace,” said representative of the Federation of German Employers' Associations (BDA) Martina Perreng.