Want to smoke a cigarette? Go out into the street

As of December 21, 2002, company employees are supposed to go out into the streets. Or at least they should get out of their offices, plants or factories, not to protest against some government measure, but, of all things, to apply it.
At least this will happen if the provisions of Law 34/2002 (which will enter effect in ten days) on preventing and fighting consumption of tobacco products are enforced. No one disputes the necessity of such a law, but the way it was conceived. This is just another general and ambiguous law, with no clear norms and, to speak the truth, not very practical, some company managers feel.
The problem lies in the stipulations regarding the places where smoking is allowed, even if every company has already regulated this issue internally. According to the law, whether it is the office of the secretary, of the sales team or the general manager, smoking is no longer allowed, since these are closed public spaces, where no one can smoke.
After December 21, any inspector dealing with public health can walk into the office of company directors (although this is considered personal space) and can slap them with a several million ROL fine, on grounds of smoking, even if a manager is the single occupant of the office, which is endowed with ventilation equipment.
Monica Tatoiu, general manager of cosmetics company Oriflame is very much against these stipulations.
“I find it an abuse because, at the age of 46, I don’t need anybody coming into my office and telling me what to do with my own space. They can inform me, but the choice should be mine,” Tatoiu said.
Companies do not contest the enforcement of these measures in the secretary or sales offices, since the people working in these departments are able to get out more frequently. However, things are different when it comes to the managers’ offices.
“I don’t believe someone should meddle with the managers’ private offices. Things are different in the case of public offices,” says Gheorghe Mois, general manager of Castrum Group.
Gilda Lazar, JTI Romania corporate affairs director, feels the law is flawed, not necessarily because of its lack of clarity, but because it “trespasses” personal space.
“I do not think of my office as public space and I believe no one is entitled to come in and check on me,” Gilda Lazar says.
However, the Health and Family Ministry says that everyone must comply with the law.
“This is just the beginning and the law was the first step. This does not mean that every public institution will be checked every day starting December 21. The checking will be done by state sanitary inspectors from the Public Health Department, by OPC (i.e. Consumer Protection Office) inspectors and by the transports health department officials, but they will not march in every institution,” said Roxana Hizo, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health.