smoking breaks / paid breaks

[caring guy]

At work my employer has said:

 

Staff who work 6 hours or less are not entitled to have a smoking break or 5 minutes to eat their lunch. They have to work the 6 hours.

 

Staff who work over 6 hours have to have an unpaid 1/2 hour break. If you smoke you can have 6 x 5 minute breaks instead of the 1 x 1/2 hour.

 

My questions are:

 

Can a 6 hour employee be made to work the whole 6 hours flat with no break at all (how can a member of staff working 9.30 - 3.30 have no lunch)?

 

My wife works 6 hours in a school and gets a 20 minute paid break every day. Is there anything in law saying staff should be given paid breaks?

 

Can a 6 hour employee be told if they spend 10 minutes smoking they must work 10 minutes later at the end of thier shift?

 

Thanks in advance.

Edited September 26, 2012 by caring guy

[padja]

20 minute break for every 6 hours worked by law. nothing about paid breaks

 

"When you are working you have a right to 20 minute break for every six hours that you work. Your employer can tell you when to take it as long as it is taken in one block, is not at the beginning or end of your day and you are allowed to spend it off the premises. Workers that are under 18 are entitled to more and can take 30 minutes for every four and a half hours that they work"

 

as for smoking breaks my personal opinion is you have a smoke in your own time, I dont smoke so why should non smokers work full 6 hr shift when smokers get 10 minutes to smoke. I think smoking breaks are at desecration of employer

[becky2585]

You aren't entitled to paid breaks at all, but 20 minutes for any shift over 6 hours worked should allow you an unpaid, uninterrupted break.

 

So if the shift is under 6 hours, no, an employee isn't entitled to a break at all.

 

In terms of the smoking point, it's really up to the employer. But it's clearly wasted work time if it's spent smoking and not working!

[Bandit127]

I suspect the policy states that employees can have 6 x 5 minute breaks OR one 30 minute break. I suspect too that this policy doesn't just apply to smokers but to all staff.

 

All the companies I have worked for have NO official concessions for smokers - you smoke in your tea break and lunch break. Some will give you somewhere with a roof over your head and a rudimentary ashtray. Most are tolerant of salaried smokers that grab an extra fag or two if you don't mind working late for free to make the time up - but even this is an unfair system since non smokers also work late for free. None have been tolerant of hourly paid employees taking extra "fag breaks" because they get paid for all the hours they work.

 

Anything else is grossly unfair on non smokers.

 

No workplace (especially one employing teachers) would give you an extra 6 x 5 minute breaks on top of what non smokers get.

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

I'm afraid the smoking thing is a bugbear of mine too. I've worked in places where the smokers took the same lunchbreak as everyone else, left at the end of the day when the non-smokers did, but spent maybe half an hour a day or so smoking outside the building.

 

I never did get to grips with it being fair, sorry.

 

I hope you get the answer to your question though.

 

My best, HB

[Sidewinder]

I always allowed members of my staff who smoked an occasional fag break, but on the understanding that they made up twice as much time as it took to smoke the cigarette!

[Kitten1]

I've allowed the odd extra fag break to staff before. And the non smokers then got chased off for a quick cuppa in lieu of a fag!

[becky2585]

It's an interesting debate

 

I've actually never worked anywhere that allowed cigarette breaks! In our office, many of the secretaries in their mid late 30s talk about the time when it was perfectly normal to sit at their desks (with a typewriter) smoking all day long - all smokers had ash trays!

 

Those days seem like another universe to me, but I'm 27 so that could be why.

 

I do sneak out at lunch for a cheeky cigarette, but I wouldn't go during the day. Mainly because I'm usually too busy to even fit in making a cup of coffee!

[Kitten1]

I remember it well & I'm 32. I used to have an ashtray on my desk, a selection of lighters & my coffee mug!

[Surfer01]

What's an ash tray?

[honeybee13]

What's an ash tray?

 

What you use when the floor's full up, according to a very sarcastic landlord when I was young.

 

HB

[Sidewinder]

It is indeed an interesting debate, and I suppose it will always depend on the nature of the workplace as much as anything. In my particular environment, we were reasonably tolerant (perhaps being a smoker influenced my decisions somewhat...) and accepted the fact that smokers would be allowed the occasional break, when it was quiet and this was not a problem. It did though need careful management so that the non-smokers were not disadvantaged, hence the need to be making time up so that this was seen to be the case. It never really caused any friction though, as anybody was free to go off and make coffee as they pleased and many of the non-smokers spent longer doing this than somebody else going for a ciggie.

 

I too remember the days when smoking whilst working was commonplace - seems like ages ago!

[postggj]

the general rule of thought is that smokers are more productive if they have had their nicotine fix

being an ex smoker i know how they feel, nicotine is a legal addictive substance so please do not be to hard on smokers, it took me 30 years to quit

 

now that smoking has the same anti social tag as drink driving, people who smoke will diminish over time

[Calamity1]

I used to work for a well known company that would allow smokers, a regular 5-10 minutes outside, to smoke. Non-smokers were not allowed these breaks.

 

I thought this was unfair, so went to the manager and asked for a sunshine break. He thought I was joking and said no. So I said, first of all it's discrimination and secondly, oh dear, guess i'll have to take up smoking to take breaks and then sue the company for my ensuing ill health.

 

From then on, I, and other non-smokers were allowed sunshine breaks. And when it wasn't sunny, I would ask for dance routine breaks, cabaret breaks, whatever I could think of breaks.

 

It worked. Try it, it's fun, especially the look on their faces as you tell them that all the non-smokers need to go outside to practice a break dancing routine...

 

This company had a lot of discriminatory practices. I actually took them to ET and won. A lot changed for the other staff after that. I left.

[becky2585]

Calamity, that's brilliant

[Diesellily]

I like Calamity's idea a lot!

 

I am a smoker but my collegue is not. I am allowed 30 mins a day break which I only I go outside for about 10 mins mid morning and again about 2ish for a cig. It's never come up in conversation but I would never dream of taking extra breaks just to have a fag and penalising her for not smoking.

[Ros1609]

I'm not a smoker but I remember the outrage in my first job when the smokers on the team were 'brought into line' and told when they could go for an unpaid fag break. The argument was that the non smokers got 1 hour (unpaid) for lunch so the smokers got 2 ten minute fag breaks and 40 minutes for lunch. Seemed fair enough to me but they weren't happy. We also had 2 part time members of staff who worked six hours without a break, they'd eat their lunch at their desks

[renegadeimp]

We also had 2 part time members of staff who worked six hours without a break, they'd eat their lunch at their desks

 

I'm full time and iv lost count how many times ive done that. It's probably a reason why they promoted me to a position that involves travelling over the north west and midlands to other company offices.

[Calamity1]

Thank you becky2585 and Diesellily

 

I'm not against smokers having fag breaks at all btw.

 

I'm just against discrimination. Either everyone gets extra breaks, or no one does.

 

I have had times when I've been a smoker (and I smoked during the same breaks that smokers and non-smokers alike had), but I would always expect smokers and non-smokers to be treated equally.