For Some in Spain, New Year's Brings Pain

For others, it couldn't have come soon enough. Two new laws take effect today in Spain. One affects la siesta, the other bans smoking in public buildings.

First, an excerpt from an article that appears in today's IHT, by Renwick McLean:

For Many, the Siesta Ends in Spain

MADRID When Spain's government employees report to work Monday, they will be forced to abandon a tradition that has typified Spanish life for decades. Instead of taking the customary two or three hours for lunch, they will be allowed only one.

Under new rules that took effect on Sunday, employees of the central government will adopt the new schedule, eliminating the long break at midday that pushes the close of the typical Spanish workday as far back as 8 p.m., sometimes later.

The change, announced by the government in early December, is intended to align the Spanish work schedule with the rest of Europe's, and to reduce the time that employees, particularly working parents, spend away from home.

Before the days of long commutes and heavy traffic, most Spaniards returned home for lunch and a siesta at midday. Now a trip home is often impractical, particularly in the large cities, but the traditional work schedule with the long afternoon break has largely remained.

"Workdays in Spain are extremely long, with people leaving home early in the morning and not returning until 9 or 9:30 at night," said Ignacio Buqueras y Bach, president of Fundación Independiente, a research organization in Madrid that has led the campaign for shorter workdays. "People are realizing that we have got to change."

Then there is this from Reuter's, by Emma Ross-Thomas:

Spain's New Law Sends Shivering Smokers Onto Street

MADRID (Reuters) - Spaniards working on New Year's Day were driven onto the chilly streets to smoke as a new ban on smoking in public places came into effect on Sunday, but in Madrid's typical smoky bars the law was widely ignored.

Spain is Europe's second biggest per capita consumer of tobacco after Greece, according to market researchers Euromonitor, and until now many Spaniards still smoked at work.

From January 1 it is illegal to smoke in offices, hospitals, schools and shopping centers. Bars and restaurants of more than 100 sq.-meters (1,076 sq. feet) must have no-smoking sections. But bars smaller than that can choose whether to ban or allow smoking throughout, making the law much softer than similar legislation in other European countries.

And small cramped bars -- most typically with hams hanging from the ceiling and a layer of butts on the floor -- dominate Spain's famously hectic nightlife.

"I'm not going to give up because they impose it on me," said an administrator at Madrid's Hospital Clinico, who declined to be named. "When they forbid something it makes you want to do it even more," she told Reuters.

The law, aimed at cutting the number of smokers from a current one-third of the population, also bans tobacco advertising and raises the minimum age for buying cigarettes to 18 from 16.

Click here for the full text of the first article; here for the second.