But now even that dubious pleasure is under attack. Employees of an Essex council who sneak off for a few nifty fags during office hours are now expected to work late to make up for it.

What a ridiculous policy. All employees deserve, and need, brief breaks from work. Without them, they become tired and inefficient. Whether they spend their breaks smoking a cigarette, having a chin-wag at the coffee machine or walking around the block does not matter.

If any member of staff begins to abuse this privilege, then the employer can deal with them using the company's existing disciplinary procedures. These should be more than adequate to rein-in the smoker who keeps disappearing for a cigarette every ten minutes.

Employers should be aware of the potential for resentment if the nicotine fiends appear to be enjoying liberties denied to their clean-lunged colleagues. But it is neither sensible nor fair to target work-shy smokers yet ignore work-shy non-smokers. Anti-smoking group ASH even recognises the potential for discrimination.

Moreover, it is difficult to see how the Essex council could implement this policy fairly. A smoker who takes frequent fag breaks might still be more productive than a desk-bound colleague. Another might take work to the smoking room with him.In order to impose this policy, someone will have to carry out a continuous time and motion study on the smokers. There could be no bigger waste of time than that.

Smokers now accept other people should not have to breathe in their smoke. But it is a little much to expect them to give up their right to a break as well. As their life expectancy is shortened with every puff, they need all the leisure time they can get.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.