Experts spoke about the employee's responsibility for private smoke breaks at work

Smoke breaks during working hours often become a reason for disputes between employees and employers, however, this issue is not directly regulated in labor legislation. On January 22, experts explained to Izvestia in which cases going out to smoke is considered a violation of discipline, and what measures of influence are permissible by law.

Sofya Lukinova, Head of the Legal Department at VMT Consult, explained that the employee's obligation to perform labor functions in good faith and comply with internal regulations is stipulated in article 21 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. Specific requirements for working hours, breaks, and employee behavior should be fixed in the internal labor regulations, as required by Article 189 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation.

According to Article 108 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, if the working day lasts more than four hours, the employee is given a break for rest and food — not less than 30 minutes and not more than two hours. All other breaks, including smoke breaks, are not provided for separately by law.

"The concept of "smoke break" does not exist in the legislation. The company may or may not allow smoke breaks — if so, their duration and number should also be specified in the internal regulations, indicating the smoking area (and with the equipment of such a place, for example, special tight doors that do not allow smoke into the room)," the lawyer explained.

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According to her, violations related to unauthorized absences outside the prescribed break are classified as violations of labor discipline on general grounds. Disciplinary penalties provided for in Article 192 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation may be applied for them: remark, reprimand or dismissal. As a rule, a remark is issued for one-time or minor violations, such as prolonged smoke breaks. Stricter measures are applied in case of systematic misconduct or in the presence of previously recorded violations.

At the same time, Lukinova emphasizes, the employer does not have the right to impose fines for smoking or withhold money from wages. The law restricts the range of measures of influence, and when considering disputes, courts often side with employees if disciplinary measures were applied without sufficient evidence or in violation of the procedure.

The fact of violation of labor discipline can be confirmed by technical means of recording working hours — access control systems, electronic logs or programs that record activity at a work computer. However, transparency remains a key condition: employees should be familiar with the time accounting rules in advance and understand which breaks are included in working hours and which are not.

Anastasia Gorelkina, an expert in the field of corporate governance and personnel training, Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of Siberian Business Union Holding Company, member of the Board of Directors of Kemerovo Joint Stock Company Azot, added that in practice, conflicts around smoke breaks occur more often where the requirements of the employer are unclear or control is excessively strict. According to her, the law does not establish a "norm" for the number of smoke breaks, and the balance is always determined by the company's internal rules and common sense.

"Frequent smoke breaks are not just about control and punishment. Most often, they are caused by fatigue, burnout, lack of pauses in the work rhythm, or banal low engagement. When an employer pays attention to working conditions, workload, and the atmosphere in the team and gives people understandable and positive motivation, the need to "escape for a smoke break" often decreases by itself," the expert noted.

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On the same day, Alexander Khaminsky, a lawyer and head of the Law Enforcement Center in Moscow and the Moscow Region, said that employees could face disciplinary action for frequent smoke breaks.

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