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Jan11

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Can a company give smokers smoke breaks and not offer non-smokers a rest break of equal time?

This is an unusual question, but in most states, yes, an employer could give one group of employees (smokers) extra breaks and not permit another group of employees (non-smokers) to take them. It is not fair, but it is legal in most cases. If this policy had a dispariate impact on a protected group, it would be illegal discrimination under the law. For example, suppose all the women smoked and none of the men did. Giving the women breaks while denying them to men would be illegal discrimination based on sex. This is true, even if discrimination was not the intention behind this policy.

This is a very unusual situation. Most employers are aware of the negative effects frequent smoking breaks have on productivity, and are eliminating them for that reason. But there is no law that an employer must do so.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, January 11th, 2009 at 8:16 pm and is filed under
Human Resources Management, Management / Leadership Development.
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