THE trade union Mandate will submit evidence of "under-the-counter payments and anti-union policies" by publicans to the Competition Authority which is investigating the licensing trade.
The allegations were made at the union's conference on Monday, and the Minister of State for Commerce, Mr Pat Rabbitte, invited submissions to the authority.
The chief executive of the Licensed Vintners' Association, which represents most licensed premises in Dublin, said the claims were "nonsense" and "hysterical".
Mr Frank Fell said that since the Finance Act of 1992, all publicans had to produce a tax clearance certificate annually before their licence was renewed. This meant that "under-the-counter payments" could not be made.
Comments saying publicans do not pay people in the lawful way is an insult to the Revenue Commissioners themselves. They now audit the accounts of hundreds of pubs and they have found no evidence of under-the-counter payments," he said.
Mr Fell said the comments were made because Mandate had "failed" workers in the bar industry. "Bar staff are paid very well and they often have no need to be unionised. In many cases we pay higher than the union rates."
He was "unaware" of publicans not allowing their staff to talk to union representatives. "Staff in all pubs can talk to whoever they want. There is nothing put in the way of staff either talking to the union or joining it. If you consider that during the strike in 1994, 70 per cent of pubs stayed open, this shows that most staff are not interested in the union".
Mr Fell said bar staff were paid at least £300 per week, had an attractive pension scheme at 60 per cent of their final salary and qualified for a year-long personal accident insurance scheme.
Another allegation was that the 39-hour week operating in pubs was not policed properly. Mr Fell said the union should "police it themselves if they feel there is a problem
He rejected the claim that many pubs had 16-and 17-year-olds working for £1.50p or £2 an hour. "There may be a small minority of pubs paying that kind of money, but very few."