A 61-year-old Japanese civil official was recently disciplined for smoking more than 4,500 times throughout his 14-year career. He received a fine of almost 1.44 million yen (S$14,700) for smoking during working hours, according to the Straits Times.
According to the story, the government employee, along with two coworkers in the prefecture's financial department, were subjected to heavy punishment by the Osaka authorities. In addition, they took away 10% of their income for six months for continuing to smoke during work hours in spite of many warnings.
The human resources department learned that the trio was concealing cigarettes in 2022 thanks to a tip. The workers were then summoned by their manager, who also threatened to discipline them if they were found smoking again. Yet, when questioned in December 2022, the three continued to smoke and gave false information.
A 61-year-old director-level employee was found to have broken the Local Public Service Act's "duty of devotion," according to the study, out of three. In addition to his disciplinary pay cut, the guy was requested to refund 1.44 million yen from his wages.
The man smoked on the job for 355 hours and 19 minutes, according to the prefectural authorities.
Osaka has some of the harshest smoking regulations in the world, and in 2008 it outlawed smoking entirely inside of public buildings including businesses and schools. Also, since 2019 there has been a restriction on smoking by government workers while they are on the job.
In response to the punishment, some people claimed that having to leave the premises for a cigarette would have resulted in more time wasted, while others thought the fine was excessive, arguing that since people can waste time by chatting, drinking tea, and eating snacks, smoking tobacco shouldn't be punished either.
A high school teacher in Osaka was reprimanded with a temporary wage cut in 2019 after it was discovered that he had taken almost 3,400 unauthorized smoke breaks. Also, he was asked to return one million yen from his salary to the ministry of education.
