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Free cigarettes job perk ignites local activists' ire

A unusual perk at the local branch of an international tobacco company had local anti-smoking activists up in arms.

Along with more prosaic benefits such as efficiency bonuses and special-occasion gifts, the international tobacco group British American Tobacco's (BAT) local office allows employees up to two cartons of free cigarettes per month.

"We adapt to the business practices of different countries," BAT corporate affairs director Blanche Cheng (鄭智玲) said. "Here in Taiwan, it is customary to gift some of the company's products to employees. A cosmetic company might offer free cosmetics to its employees, for example."

However, the John Tung Foundation, which promotes an anti-smoking message, said the tobacco group had fallen foul of the law by mentioning the subsidized smokes in its recruitment material and the online entry form for this year's National Taiwan University job fair.

Giving employees free cigarettes is not in itself against the law, argued the foundation, but using the perk to entice new recruits is.

The foundation notified Taipei City's Bureau of Health Protection of the alleged infraction and turned up with reporters at the company's stall at the job fair yesterday.

Cheng said that there was no intent by the company to use the cigarette bonus for promotional purposes.

"We merely detailed in a factual manner the bonuses received by our employees as requested by the fair's organizers," she said.

"BAT is advertising free cigarettes as an employee benefit in order to attract applicants, that's a form of using cigarettes for promotion," said Lin Hsin-ho (林信和), a legal consultant for the foundation. "By doing this it is contravening the first item of the ninth statute of the Tobacco Hazards Prevention Act [菸害防制法]."

Lin also called for the swift passage of an amendment to the act that would clarify the illegality of using cigarettes as an employee perk.

"Right now, they are taking advantage of a legal loophole," Lin said. "It's time that loophole was closed."

"I understand the Tung Foundation's concern over the practice, but they need to take up the issue via a different avenue," said Liu Mei-hung (劉美紅), the director of the graduate careers office at the university.

"As far as the job fair is concerned, BAT has shown tremendous commitment to do the right thing. They arrived at six in the morning to cover up the offending section in the job fair handbooks by using stickers," Liu said.

Liu also promised that the Web site will be amended to delete any mention of free cigarettes for BAT employees "as soon as possible."

"We will go to the location of the job fair to investigate if there is anything untoward going on," said Jiang Yu-mei (姜郁美), chief of the Food and Drug Division of the Taipei City Government's Department of Health.
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