Pete Robinson: Workers banned from using pubs

Health and safety zealots at the Welsh Assembly are banning thousands of civil servants from lunchtime pub visits, even for a swift half or a glass of wine with their lunch, stipulating they do not want the safety of non-drinkers to be "compromised" by colleagues working under the influence.

The "no drinks during the working day" policy will mean around 5,500 office employees could face the sack for having a lunchtime drink under plans drawn up by their bosses.

It's suggested the ban will be enforced by breathalysing suspects and having spies posted outside nearby pubs. A list of hostelries that will be out of bounds to staff has already been compiled.

Amazingly the alcohol ban, the first of its kind in a UK government body, will not apply to Ministers or other Assembly Members.

So while staff at over 100 Assembly Government offices across Wales have been told they could be fired if they are caught - the politicians who are based at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay won't.

Needless to say the workers are none too happy about it. Neither is their union. Jeff Evans, senior national officer for the Public and Commercial Services Union said: "We regard this fundamentally as an infringement of our members' human rights."

Shame he didn't consider that when the blanket smoking ban was being forced through. As I've warned before, many times, you cannot pick and choose which of your civil liberties you are prepared to see banned. Too late now to complain about 'rights' when you've already opened the floodgates.

The 'antis' have tasted blood and they're going for the jugular. Did anyone really believe that having achieved just one pub-wrecking ban they would quietly disband and fade away?

Don't assume because this will currently apply to just a few thousand Welsh pen-pushers you and your pub will be safe. Trust me, this is the thin end of the wedge.

Elf 'n Safety tsars are hawkishly scrutinising the action ready to leap aboard the banned-wagon (sic) when this thing snowballs across the UK, increasing the pressure until it's eventually adopted by private firms.

They don't even need any change of law to get these new pub bans established. After all, as a spokesperson for the nannying idiots at the Welsh Assembly says: "We have a duty of care to all of our staff. This includes ensuring that their safety in the working environment is not compromised by working with colleagues who may mbe under the influence of alcohol".

Makes no difference that there are already perfectly good measures in place to discipline or dismiss any employee who crawls back to work from the Nelson Mandela Arms having imbibed a skinfull.

The point is to implant the idea deep into the pliant public psyche that lunchtime pub visits are dangerous and irresponsible.

Absolutely no argument will be entertained because it's a 'safety' issue. Even if the workers involved will be operating nothing more lethal than an ergonomic keyboard or a felt-tipped pen.

Again it was under the guise of safety that they initially managed to get the smoking ban off the ground.

Any unbiased person could guess 'safety' had little to do with it when Croydon LBC forbade its staff from taking fag breaks, or when Sutton Council tried to ban its employees from smoking in their own cars going to and from work.

Jeff Evans, of the PCS, goes on to ask: "Where will it end? Will they impose a ban on cream cakes and fatty foods?"

The answer is 'yes' Jeff. Given enough time they most certainly will.