TOKYO, Japan (WHTM) — A company in Japan is offering non-smoking employees an extra six days off per year to off-set the amount of time those who smoked took during cigarette breaks.
According to The Telegraph, a marketing firm, Piala Inc. in Tokyo, decided to make a change after non-smoking workers complained that they were working more hours than their smoking counterparts.
Piala Inc. only introduced the non-smokers’ perk in September, but employees have been quick to take advantage.
“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,” said Hirotaka Matsushima, a spokesman for the company.
Since the new policy was put in place, no less than 30 of the 120 workers have taken the extra days off and encouraged four to give up smoking, The Telegraph reports.
“I hope to encourage employees to quit smoking through incentives rather than penalties or coercion”, Takao Asuka, the Piala Inc CEO, said.
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