Union calls for smoking ban
06 June 2001
Smoking should be banned in licensed premises, restaurants, hotels, shops and casinos, the GMB union has said. The union, which agreed the demand at its Biennial Congress earlier this week, is to lobby the Government to change the law to make it compulsory for non-smoking areas to be set aside in pubs and clubs. It will then push for a total ban on smoking in all public workplaces. Smoking in public workplaces is currently covered by a voluntary Health and Safety Executive code, which the GMB said was failing adequately to protect people working in smoky conditions. It particularly wants to see the Government cracking down on companies that persistently fail to offer workers alternatives to working in smoky environments. GMB London Region delegate Christopher McLaughlin said: "This is not an attack on smokers. It is an attack on unsafe and unhealthy workplaces." The anti-smoking lobby group Action for Smoking & Health welcomed the move. "We are very pleased. The more people who take this line the better," said a spokeswoman. But Forest, the smokers' pressure group backed by celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson, rejected the call. "We don't need legislation to ban smoking. What we need is legislation ensuring that new restaurants and bars have a compulsory no-smoking area with minimum standards of air control and extraction," he said. And Ian McKerracher, chief executive of the Restaurant Association, said a total ban was not the way forward. "We would be against any blanket ban. We believe it is a matter to be left up to the customer and proprietor themselves," he said. It was up to proprietors to make sure they were providing a good quality environment, and good quality air, for both their staff and customers, he added. by Nic Paton
