Smoking ban for city workers could close smoking room used by Helsinki tram drivers
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By Jussi Konttinen and Antti Manninen
The smoke will hover no more in the smoking room of the Töölö tram depot if a planned total ban on smoking at Helsinki’s municipal workplaces comes into effect. The city’s Board of Health is to discuss the matter in the coming days.
The smoking room is one of the Töölö depot’s most pleasant places. There are even paintings on the wall, and the smoke is not very thick, because ventilation is efficient.
The smoking room has traditions going back many years. It is also a rarity at municipal workplaces in Helsinki, which have generally become smoke-free. Helsinki City Transport has another, larger smoking goom in Hakaniemi.
The idea of a smoking ban is sharply opposed by the men sitting in the Töölö smoking room. Tram drivers Lasse Toijala, Juho Lankinen, and Jyri Nyberg, who have come in for a smoke say that the idea is “dead in the water”.
The city wants municipal employees to restrict their smoking to legally mandated meal and coffee breaks, away from the workplace.
This means that some employees would have to stop smoking altogether on work days, as not all are entitled to leave the workplace during breaks.
Riitta Simoila, head of development of Helsinki’s Ehalth Centres, says that the aim is to reduce smoking.
“This involves the public health impact, but also that city employees are examples and role models for residents.”
Simoila says that the ban is to be enforced as part of normal supervisor routine.
“The employer decides on the use of working hours”, she emphasises.
Information of the existence of a smoking room at the Töölö depot comes as a surprise to Simola. Under the Smoke-Free Helsinki programme that began in 2007, all smoking facilities were to have been removed from city premises by now.
Tram drivers will have a cigarette break at the beginning of their shirts in the smoking room of the depot. They feel that the ban would erode a positive group spirit, if they are forced to smoke outside in the cold.
However, Jyri Nyberg admits that he also smokes at the end of the line, while waiting for the scheduled return. “Smoking is a person’s own choice, although I have tried to stop, too.”
The city has 39,000 employees.
The last time that Helsinki tried to stop their employees from smoking was in the autumn of 2006, but the City Board rejected the proposal.
According to a study conducted in 2007, 18 per cent of city employees are smokers. According to calculations behind the ban, a smoking worker uses the equivalent of 27 working days on smoking.
Neighbouring Espoo banned smoking by its employees during working hours at the beginning of the year. According to Juha Metso, head of social services for the city, the non-smoking policy has worked.
“The matter was prepared together with personnel organisations and smokers. The staff saw the matter primarily in a positive light”, Metso says.
Metso says that it is up to the supervisors to see to it that the employees act according to the instructions. If the employee has a time card, he or she needs to punch out when going outside for a cigarette break.
The Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman took the view in 2004 that an employee has the right to ban smoking during working hours, but not during rest breaks. That came up when the municipality of Paltamo tried to ban smoking by its employees during breaks as well.
Finland’s hospital districts have declared themselves smoke-free. Several companies have also banned smoking during working hours.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.2.2010
The smoke will hover no more in the smoking room of the Töölö tram depot if a planned total ban on smoking at Helsinki’s municipal workplaces comes into effect. The city’s Board of Health is to discuss the matter in the coming days.
The smoking room is one of the Töölö depot’s most pleasant places. There are even paintings on the wall, and the smoke is not very thick, because ventilation is efficient.
The smoking room has traditions going back many years. It is also a rarity at municipal workplaces in Helsinki, which have generally become smoke-free. Helsinki City Transport has another, larger smoking goom in Hakaniemi.
The idea of a smoking ban is sharply opposed by the men sitting in the Töölö smoking room. Tram drivers Lasse Toijala, Juho Lankinen, and Jyri Nyberg, who have come in for a smoke say that the idea is “dead in the water”.
The city wants municipal employees to restrict their smoking to legally mandated meal and coffee breaks, away from the workplace.
This means that some employees would have to stop smoking altogether on work days, as not all are entitled to leave the workplace during breaks.
Riitta Simoila, head of development of Helsinki’s Ehalth Centres, says that the aim is to reduce smoking.
“This involves the public health impact, but also that city employees are examples and role models for residents.”
Simoila says that the ban is to be enforced as part of normal supervisor routine.
“The employer decides on the use of working hours”, she emphasises.
Information of the existence of a smoking room at the Töölö depot comes as a surprise to Simola. Under the Smoke-Free Helsinki programme that began in 2007, all smoking facilities were to have been removed from city premises by now.
Tram drivers will have a cigarette break at the beginning of their shirts in the smoking room of the depot. They feel that the ban would erode a positive group spirit, if they are forced to smoke outside in the cold.
However, Jyri Nyberg admits that he also smokes at the end of the line, while waiting for the scheduled return. “Smoking is a person’s own choice, although I have tried to stop, too.”
The city has 39,000 employees.
The last time that Helsinki tried to stop their employees from smoking was in the autumn of 2006, but the City Board rejected the proposal.
According to a study conducted in 2007, 18 per cent of city employees are smokers. According to calculations behind the ban, a smoking worker uses the equivalent of 27 working days on smoking.
Neighbouring Espoo banned smoking by its employees during working hours at the beginning of the year. According to Juha Metso, head of social services for the city, the non-smoking policy has worked.
“The matter was prepared together with personnel organisations and smokers. The staff saw the matter primarily in a positive light”, Metso says.
Metso says that it is up to the supervisors to see to it that the employees act according to the instructions. If the employee has a time card, he or she needs to punch out when going outside for a cigarette break.
The Deputy Parliamentary Ombudsman took the view in 2004 that an employee has the right to ban smoking during working hours, but not during rest breaks. That came up when the municipality of Paltamo tried to ban smoking by its employees during breaks as well.
Finland’s hospital districts have declared themselves smoke-free. Several companies have also banned smoking during working hours.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.2.2010
JUSSI KONTTINEN AND ANTTI MANNINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
jussi.konttinen@hs.fi, antti.manninen@hs.fi