Those who smoke cigarettes often times take short breaks in between work to head off for a puff.
Most of the time, this does not effect their salaries but for one Japanese man, his smoke breaks has caused him quite a loss.
According to The Mainichi, an Osaka Prefectural Government employee received a 10% salary cut for 6 months AND was ordered to return 1.44 million yen (RM48,359.84) of his salary for taking 4,512 smoke breaks in his 14 and a half years of service with them.
The 61-year-old employee apparently took smoke breaks amounting to 355 hours and 19 minutes while on duty.
Alongside him are 2 other employees who also received 10% pay cuts for repeatedly smoking during working hours.
Based on the Osaka Prefectural Government’s human resource (HR) division, the 3 employees were cautioned against smoking during working hours after receiving an anonymous tip.
Their supervisor then kept an eye on them and figured out that they had continued to smoke repeatedly, and also lied that they had not smoked after receiving the warning.
Considering it is a violation of the public servants’ duty of devotion to work under the Japanese Local Public Service Act, the 61-year-old employee has since agreed to return the RM48,359 from his salary.
What would you have done if you were in his shoes? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
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