Human Resource Blog

Breaks

I work for a company where I am the only smoker. When I first started at the company, I was allowed several 10-minute smoking breaks per day, in addition to the morning and the afternoon breaks. I rarely use that 10 minutes it’s usually 4 or less.

The other employees do not take breaks. Of course, they may stand around and talk, and we have one whose husband visits her at work (she is hearing impaired) at least twice daily sometimes three times a day.

My question is what rights do I have if any to the break that the company has allowed? Is it fair that just because the other employee does not smoke, but does take breaks, (when her husband visits). I feel as though I am being singled out here because I do smoke (in my car, in the parking lot). Please help to answer this questions?

There is no state or federal law that smokers must be given breaks for cigarettes. (Some states do require one or two daily breaks for all workers, but apparently you are not in one of them.) Unfortunately, smoking is not an inalienable right. In fact, many employers prohibit employees from smoking on company property, including inside their cars in the parking lot. At these companys, an employee is not permitted to smoke from the time they arrive at work until they leave.

Many employers regard smoking as a biohazard to other employees, because second-hand smoke causes cancer. So yes, they have a right to discriminate against smokers and single them out.

Employers have every right to establish new smoking or break policies at any time, as long as they apply equally to all workers. Your coworkers may not be as efficient as you would like them to be, but that doesn’t make it okay for you to leave your work station to go smoke in your car. As the old saying goes, “two wrongs don’t make a right.”