I've read your posts in the past and found them generally to be fair and well sourced. However, this time, I think you are focusing on the wrong part.
In my opinion, smokers do not deserve EXTRA breaks that non smoker's wouldn't get. The article says that smokers would have to wait until lunch break to have their smoke. I don't know if the company offered their employees other breaks or not throughout the day, but all employees should get the same amount of break times.
Once in the new building, the company also banned the informal practice of smoking breaks."The rest of the people were saying, 'How come smokers get a break and go outside and we don't?' " Johnson said.
"We said, 'You're absolutely right. That's not fair, because we're rewarding bad behavior.' That's when we said to supervisors, you've got to stay on top of it and make sure smokers are not allowed to take breaks."
MOST OF THE NEW hires come with the understanding that they will have to go until lunchtime without a cigarette. Johnson said Beacon is doing its employees a favor.
The only thing wrong with the above is that the supervisors should have been told to make sure smokers didn't take SMOKE breaks. But, I think people understand what was meant.
I don't think YOU UNDERSTAND. Last I checked, unless the law has changed, workers are allowed, in fact mandated, to take one morning and one afternoon break. Whether they chose to take it inside or outside of the building should be their choice. Anything otherwise is akin to locking down a workplace, and not allowing workers out.
In most workplaces, even non-smokers will step outside on breaks, to take walks or just enjoy the outdoors.
Exactly. Read my post above this one. Everyone needs to take the same amount of breaks. IMHO, if a smoker is outside all the time smoking, then they just aren't busy enough. This is the fault of the employer. Give the smoking employee more work or eliminate the un-needed position. Enough is enough already. Smokers are no better then anyone else when it comes to breaks. This is what gives smokers such a bad name. I understand where your coming from, and I, personally, can't stand it when a person is outside smoking when they are on the clock. I agree 100%!
But to totally ban a smoker from taking any breaks to "control" their bad habit and behavior is totally W R O N G.