Speaking during a meeting for GRTU members, director general Vince Farrugia accused the government of breaking promises and trying to hide other problems by introducing the ban.
Mr Farrugia said: “We are here to grumble. If certain people don’t want to hear grumbling – they shouldn’t create situations such as they have created with the smoking issue.” He accused the government of breaking every promise it had made to the GRTU prior to the European Union referendum in 2002.
“How can ministers refuse to honour agreements we had made with their predecessors? How can they just about turn and say that those agreements do not count any more,” he said.
Mr Farrugia said that every day the government thought up something new. “We had the 18 per cent VAT, and then we had eco-tax and now we have this total smoking ban. Everyone in this country just kicks SMEs when they are down,” he said.
Mr Farrugia jeered: “There is so much pollution in this country, trucks belching black smoke, incinerators – what does government crack down on? Cigarettes.”
Mr Farrugia issued a stern warning. “I tell the government now: do not come knocking on our doors a day before the election asking for our vote because you will not get it. If you want the vote of the SMEs you must treat us with respect for the whole term,” he said.
Mr Farrugia said the government was losing money on every front. “They created WasteServ. It lost Lm4 million. So what did they do? They imposed an eco-tax.”
He particularly singled out Health Minister Louis Deguara for criticism. “If he thinks he can hide the Mater Dei debacle by masking it with the smoking ban, he can think again. He miscalculated by Lm120 million. Go and sort out the hospital, not invent this issue,” he said.
Mr Farrugia also questioned our country’s modus operandi. Mr Farrugia said no other country in Europe tells smokers to “shut themselves in a room and choke themselves. Every airport in Europe has simple extractors over a smoking area and it works. Why do we have to build rooms in this country?” he asked. He said government is telling people that they cannot smoke indoors and if they want to do so they must go outside. “I don’t even like to put my dog out, let alone people,” he said.
He also asked what a person was to do when a customer who is a friend pops in for a chat and lights up a cigarette. “What are we supposed to do? Phone the police?”
Mr Farrugia said the GRTU had always sat around the table, discussed things and reached a compromise. Why doesn’t government want to do that now?” He also spoke about the extractor equipment specifications. “As far as I know, they use extractor fans all over the world. We are being asked to buy something that you would find on a Boeing jet for goodness sake,” he said.
Hospitality and Leisure Section president Philip Fenech said the smoking issue had been going on for a year now. “I will bring up the example of Ireland. They thought that the ban would raise some eyebrows and then it would settle. But it has had the opposite effect. People were OK with it, but now they are up in arms. Sales have gone down in bars, pubs, distributors and producers,” he said. There had been 2,000 job losses as a result, he said. He pointed out that the GRTU was not a pro-smoking lobby. “We want to have the choice of whether to be a smoking friendly or a non-smoking establishment. The smoking ban was no EU directive either and that must be pointed out,” he said.