On October 1, at TDC, the biggest telecom company in Denmark (8,500 employees), a new antismoking policy came into force. It provides for a complete ban on smoking inside the premises and in company cars and the obligation for employees who smoke outside of collective breaks to sign an agreement with their boss to compensate the time lost – 15 minutes per cigarette. This new policy, rejected by the company’s unions, is in line with a national context particularly averse to smoking, with several large public organizations already adopting a complete ban on smoking at work. (Ref. 130581)
TDC’s new antismoking policy aims to encourage “as many employees as possible to decide not to smoke during working hours,” Miriam Igelsø Hvidt, the company’s HR manager, told Planet Labor. After adopting a first regulation in 1996, prohibiting smoking in joint offices and open spaces, TDC adopted gradual changes, often ahead of the law, like when it introduced “smoking cabins” (Rygekabiner) in the early 2000s (the law imposed them in 2007), thus allowing workers to smoke inside, before removing them and completely banning smoking inside at the end of 2009 (though it was still possible to smoke on balconies or in professional vehicles).
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