Agencies clash over workplace smoking law

The main trade union for bar workers clashed tonight with a campaign to force a Government climbdown over plans to outlaw smoking in the workplace from the start of next year.

The Mandate union rejected claims by the Irish Hospitality Industry Alliance that the proposed smoking ban would result in thousands of job losses.

Matty O’Callaghan, the union’s Cork divisional organiser, called assertions that 65,000 jobs could go through a 30% decline in business a scare tactic that was not backed up by international research on the economic effects of smoking bans.

He also said “so-called compromises” on the issue advanced by different sectors within the hospitality trade were “a recipe for continued exposure for workers to the effects of passive smoking”.

Mr O’Callaghan ruled out calls for the reservation of separate spaces in bars for smokers, saying it would still leave workers vulnerable to environmental tobacco smoke and could itself lead to job losses for staff in smaller pubs and restaurants.

He added that suggestions relating to the greater use of ventilation systems were wrong, commenting: “As a recent Health and Safety Authority and Office of Tobacco Control report makes clear, even the most advanced forms of ventilation still leave an estimated ETS risk of 1,500 to 2,500 times the acceptable risk level for regulated hazardous air pollutants.”

Earlier, the IHIA held the first of a series of public meetings for the hospitality sector on the smoking issue in Cork.

Spokesman Finbar Murphy said the implications of the smoking ban in its current form were “potentially devastating” for the industry and accused the Government of double standards it its dealings with small and large business interests.

He said the Government had confirmed it was lobbying the European Union to dilute proposed environmental laws relating to the manufacture or importing of chemicals because of what he claimed were concerns over job implications for multinational companies in Ireland, and called for similar treatment of smaller indigenous businesses with the same level of priority.

Mr Murphy’s association urged people with interests in the hospitality sector to contact national and local politicians about their concerns over the planned smokes ban and to encourage customers to voice their concerns with their local politicians.

Health Minister Micheál Martin has set January 1 next year for the ban to come into effect.

The bar workers’ union’s dipsuting of the claims about job losses was also backed by the Irish Heart Foundation.

The organisation said research supported by the tobacco industry in eight countries was based on anecdotal evidence rather than hard information such as sales figures and employment data.