Japanese civil servant fined $11,000 for smoking during work hours

A Japanese civil servant had to pay a fine worth around $11,000 for lighting cigarettes during work hours and smoking on the job more than 4500 times in 14 years.

As per The Straits Times, authorities enforced a 10% pay cut for six months on the civil servant for repeatedly smoking during work hours.

Reports said the 61-year-old civil servant along with two of his colleagues was engaged in the finance department. It was learnt that the three were secretly stashing tobacco. After learning about the incident, their supervisor called them and warned them of dire consequences if they were caught smoking again.

However, the trio continued to smoke. The fine was imposed on the main culprit, reports said.

Japan’s Osaka has some of the strictest smoking laws in the world and has introduced a total ban on smoking on government premises. Moreover, government employees have been banned from smoking during work hours.

In 2019, a high school teacher in Osaka was asked to pay back one million yen of his salary to the education ministry for taking smoke breaks during work hours.