Eddie Cassidy, Mandate Trade Union, Ireland
Good morning everybody, and thank you for inviting me. The Mandate Trade Union is the third largest trade union in Ireland, and we represent in excess, possibly, of 40,000 workers. 3,000 of those work in the bar trade, mainly in the greater Dublin area. We were founded in 1994, and we are seen as the authoritative voice to represent bar workers. We have been very vocal in our campaigns over the last while. In 2000 we had the licensing hours extended from 11.30 to 12.30, and in some cases to 2:30 a.m. We’ve had the liberalisation of pub licences. This was where prior to 2000 you had to have two rural licences to buy a city licence. That has now been abolished and we now have one for one, and we’ve been most vocal in health and safety, with regard to bar employees, and it has been uppermost on our agenda.
Why trade union support? Health and safety at work, there are no viable alternatives, ventilation does not work, smoking rooms have to be attended to, they have to be cleaned by employees, so it is most important that the employees in the licensed trade are represented. We emphasise that workers are most at risk. Hospitality workplaces are places of entertainment, and also of employment. As we approached 2004 there was a concerted effort, mainly by Irish employers, to have the legislation postponed for another two years, so they could get things in place, should we say. This did not happen. Minister Martin decided he had made the date, it was 29th March, in 2004, and that was it. It was quite uncanny that they wanted to put things in place, they wanted to get proper ventilation, they had all kinds of reasons, but never once did they mention the health of employees. The employee may be in the minority, but there again, has to be represented. If you take a situation where a customer enters a licensed premises and they decide to, say, have one pint, and they decide while having that pint to smoke two cigarettes, that would take approximately 20 minutes, or half an hour, and then they leave. The smoker has only been in that environment for approximately half an hour. The employee is in that environment for all of their shift, which can be between eight and 11 hours, with a break. So if you take a situation where smoking had continued in pubs, as it had been tolerated, that’s what the employees had to contend with. Ventilation doesn’t clear it, the carcinogens are in the workplace, so eight hours in that environment is totally wrong.
The public awareness and support post ban was 82%, 95% said it was a positive health measure, and 90% said that it benefits workers. 82% say it benefits everybody. The reason it benefits everybody is that smokers say they would love to give up. You seldom hear, and I have never heard a smoker say, I’d love to be smoking an extra ten a day, because it kills people. 78% say experience of restaurants has improved. 70% say that the experience in pubs has improved, and 53% of customers are more inclined to eat in pubs. One year on, after March 2005, 94% of all workplaces inspected were smokefree. 93% of all hospitality workplaces inspected were smokefree. 98% of people believe that the workplaces are healthier. 96% of people believe that the smokefree law is a success, and 93% of people think the smokefree law is a good idea, and there were 38 prosecutions in 2005.
One year on, from behind the bar, levels of carbon monoxide have decreased by 45% in the lungs of non-smoking bar workers. In the respiratory laboratory in St James’s Hospital, Dublin, a study of 81 bar workers has taken place, and that’s pre and post the ban – a very clever idea. Before the smoking ban came in their lung function was tested, and one year on, again the same test was done, which showed a massive improvement. Bar workers’ support pre-ban was 71%, according to the MORI poll, and post ban it was 87%. 87% believe that the ban has had a positive impact on their health, and 82% have found that it is easier to breathe. 94% had little, or no difficulty enforcing the ban.
Compliance building: dialogue took place with employers and employee organisations, and that was from the very, very beginning. Practical codes of practice for employers, and employees, for employers specifically in the hospitality industry, guidelines for signs, posters for pubs, and mandatory non-smoking signage. We had the free line, the compliance line, we had the public debate on the health and safety issue. 1,353 calls to the compliance line were logged in 2005. It was an offence for a person to smoke in a specified place. The owner, manager, or other person in charge, each guilty of the offence where it is a contravention of the law. The defence, if a person can show they made all reasonable efforts to ensure compliance. Publicans have implemented the ban, and many have invested heavily in outdoor smoking facilities. That would be a very well ventilated smoking area on the exterior wall of their premises.
The impact of the ban on jobs has been marginal, with very few reported job losses attributed solely to the ban. The Irish licensed trade had been going through a difficult period prior to the ban, and this has continued. The volume of spirit sales has been in decline since 2001, 4.2% in 2003, and 4.4% in 2004. The main factors impacting on the bar trade; there is increased price competition from supermarkets and off-licences. There’s been a very dramatic change in the Irish lifestyle in the last… possibly the last five years. The level of indebtedness of the Irish population, the high level of excise duty on alcohol in the republic, and to an extent we have the smoking ban.
I would just like to say thank you for having me, and if I may just end on one small story, which happened to a very good friend of mine, Miss Joan MacDonald, who was a smoker. In 2004 Ireland was the host for the Special Olympics, which took place in the campus of University Dublin, and she was standing in one of the green areas where the field events were taking place, and she was standing on the line for the 100 metres event, and she decided that she would have a cigarette. She had just lit her cigarette and she got a tap on the shoulder - it was one of the entrants. And he said, excuse me, this is a non-smoking field, you have to move! And she did, and that was the level of compliance, even in the outdoor area.
Thank you again for listening to me, and thank you all again for not smoking!
