Mandate wants new deal if pubs open longer

Mandate, the trade union representing most of Dublin's bar staff, has insisted that pub licensing hours should not change until its members' interests were protected.

Yesterday Mr Maurice Sheehan, the union's national officer, said any new deal "must be matched by a new deal for the staff who work in the trade".

He was speaking at a news conference to mark the publication of a report by Fitzpatrick Associates, economic consultants, that was commissioned by the union to examine the implications of allowing pubs to remain open longer.

Among the possible disadvantages identified by the report is a likely fall in full-time jobs and more casualisation in pubs, as well as higher levels of absenteeism among the workforce in general.

Though Mandate is not opposed to the "limited extension" of trading hours recommended in June by an Oireachtas committee, Mr Sheehan said new legislation must strike a fair balance between the various interests, including staff.

If the committee's recommendation was accepted, allowing pubs to stay open for 14 hours on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, bartenders would find themselves working a 16-hour day, including start-up, cleaning and drinking up times.

Mr Sheehan said Mandate "certainly won't let go unchecked a further deterioration in working conditions", with more casualisation and a further drop in apprentices entering the trade - down from 300 five years ago to "virtually none" in 1998.

Referring to Dublin, he said no other city in the world was so famed for its "rich pub culture". Bar staff were also among the best-trained anywhere and their professionalism "contributes greatly to the character and quality of Dublin life".

He said Mandate would now be seeking a "comprehensive new agreement" at a meeting next month with the Licensed Vintners' Association, which represents the city's publicans, on "proper" shift arrangements to protect its members' interests.

It also wants more inspectors to ensure compliance with the Working Time Act and for the Garda to enforce the new trading hours. "We don't want them turning a blind eye to breaches of the law as they have done in the past."

Mr Jim Moloney, divisional organiser with Mandate, said a 16hour working day could lead to pressure on young bar staff to work beyond the legal limit of 10 p.m. under the Protection of Young Persons Act. This, too, needed to be addressed.

Other demands being made by Mandate include productivity pay and an increase in annual leave, "adequate" travelling and security arrangements for those working late and the introduction of profit-sharing as envisaged by Partnership 2000.

The union is also requesting the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Don oghue, to "follow closely" the employers' response to its submission and "not to bring into operation the new trading hours until the genuine concerns of bar staff have been satisfactorily addressed".

Mr Frank Fell, chief executive of the Licensed Vintners Association, said the demand for longer licensing hours was not coming primarily from publicans, but from the public. "My members would have to work longer hours as well. It is consumer driven."

He said Dublin was now the fifth most visited European capital city and there was a "major demand" to bring its licensing hours into line with the more liberal norms elsewhere in Europe - particularly at weekends, when pubs were at their busiest.

The LVA did not see this as an "area of conflict", he said. "We are quite willing to talk to them about the issues they have raised. They are the kind of things we would have to look at and accommodate if the law is going to be changed - but that could take ages."

Although the Minister had invited submissions on the issue of longer licensing hours by September 30th, Mr Fell said it was his experience that the Department of Justice was "not prepared to change the law in a hurry" to reflect even marked changes in society.

He pointed out that the last major change, involving a year-round extension to 11.30 p.m. and the abolition of the "holy hour" in Dublin pubs, was made in 1988 while the previous review of the Intoxicating Liquor Act took place as long ago as 1962.

Mr Fell said a recent survey of publicans found a "very high degree of unanimity" that the hours needed to be extended at weekends. This was an issue to be discussed with Mandate, whose members "work less than most people" because they had a nine-day fortnight.