No Right To A Smoking Break During Working Hours In Germany

Employees who smoke are not entitled to paid or additional unpaid smoking breaks in German workplaces. This article reviews the case law confirming this.

According to a 2009 study by the University of Hamburg, smoking breaks cost German companies more than EUR 28 billion annually (unfortunately, more recent figures are not available). Employers are abolishing former smoking privileges, such as additional, possibly even paid smoking breaks, in many companies for financial reasons. In recent years, these decisions have increasingly been brought before the labour courts and the labour courts have taken a strong stand for the protection of non-smokers.

The courts have had to deal in particular with the question of whether smokers who were allowed to interrupt their work in the past for smoking breaks may also be allowed to leave their workplace in future for flexibly chosen smoking breaks. There was also a dispute as to whether an employer who had in the past