Smoking is harmful to your health! But, who knew that it could cause some serious financial trouble? A Japanese civil servant recently got in trouble for smoking on the job more than 4,500 times in 14 years.
The 61-year-old director-level employee was deemed to have violated the "duty of devotion" under the Local Public Service Act. The man was asked to return 1.44 million yen (S$14,700) of his salary, in addition to his disciplinary wage reduction.
The employee and his two colleagues were fined and given a 10 percent pay cut for six months for repeatedly smoking during work hours despite multiple warnings, as per the Straits Times report.
Warnings
In 2022, the human resources office received a tip-off that the trio were secretly stashing tobacco. The employees were then summoned by their supervisor and warned they may face consequences if they are caught smoking again. However, the three continued smoking and lied about it when interviewed in December 2022.
The report stated that the authorities in Osaka took strict action against the government employees after being given warnings in 2022.
The prefectural government revealed that the man clocked up 355 hours and 19 minutes of smoking on duty.
