Company Gives Non-Smokers 6 Extra Days Vacation To Make Up For Cigarette Breaks

Authored by S.M.Gibson via TheAntiMedia.org,

A company is providing non-smoking employees an extra six days of vacation time per year to compensate for the time smoking staff members take on cigarette breaks.

Piala Inc, a Japanese marketing firm, introduced the policy in September after receiving multiple complaints from workers who do not smoke cigarettes.

"One of our non-smoking staff put a message in the company suggestion box earlier in the year saying that smoking breaks were causing problems. Our CEO saw the comment and agreed, so we are giving non-smokers some extra time off to compensate,” according to a spokesperson for Piala Inc.

Each cigarette break reportedly lasts at least 15 minutes because the firm is located on the 29th floor of a Tokyo office building.

The company hopes the new program will encourage employees to put an end to their nicotine addiction.

"I hope to encourage employees to quit smoking through incentives rather than penalties or coercion,” Takao Asuka, the Piala Inc CEO, told Kyodo News. 

 

The CEO also added that the program has already encouraged four members of the staff to give up the habit.

As Japan inches closer to the Tokyo-based 2020 Olympic games, the nation is doing everything it can to cut down on the number of smokers in the country, including a push for an outright smoking ban in public spaces.

Overall, 19.8 percent of Japanese adults are smokers, down from only four years ago when cigarette smokers made up 21.6 percent of the population.

Mapping The U.S. States That Smoke The Most (And Least)

The number of people smoking in the U.S. has fallen considerably over the years.

The most recent figures from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that just 15 percent of adults are cigarette smokers - down from 20.9 percent in 2005.

There is considerable variation between states though, as this infographic shows.

You will find more statistics at Statista

As Statista"s Martin Armstrong notes, the most smoke-free state is Utah, where 9.1 percent of adults admit to the habit.

On the other end of the scale, 26 percent of Kentucky residents represent the most prolific tobacco consumers.

Outside of the 50 states, Guam actually has the highest rate of smokers, at 27.4 percent. Puerto Rico, on the other hand has the second lowest rate - 10.7 percent.