Pay policy discriminates against smokers in Maldives

Salary increases for the employees of two Maldives broadcasters are to be linked to whether or not the employees are smokers. And, no, the smokers aren’t going to get more than the non-smokers.

The Maldives Media Company, which employs 60 people, said that non-smoking employees at its DhiFM and DhiTV stations would receive 15 percent rises while their smoking employees would receive 10 percent rises.

The company’s chairman, Mohamed ‘Uhchu’ Moosa, was quoted as saying that the decision to have different pay rises was made in order ‘to encourage’ staff to give up smoking.

“We want our staff to give up the habit of their own volition,” Uhchu said. “And to give them a chance to stop injuring their own health.”

He attempted further to justify the discrimination by citing that the entrance to the company’s office was often littered with cigarette filters.

The letter that the MMC sent out to inform staff of the policy, warns that any employee who gives up smoking and then goes back to it will be penalized with ‘a complete dissolution of all salary increments’.