PBP call on government to legislate for Workplace Ventilation Bill without delay

People Before Profit have welcomed the news that the government will not oppose the Workplace Ventilation Bill 2021.

The party are calling on the government to fast track the bill and legislate for a right to clean air in workplaces.

They are also calling on the government to help schools and workplaces implement proper ventilation.

The bill seeks to give workers the ‘right to clean air’ by imposing minimum ventilation standards in workplaces based on CO2 levels. It effectively creates minimum fresh air standards and would give employees the ability to request health and safety inspections, said Flóra Conroy, representative for People Before Profit political in Westmeath.

The bill defines clean air as having fewer than 900 ppm of CO2, and puts the onus on employers to achieve that by whatever means possible and/or to install air filtration. (Employers would still also be subject to existing health and safety laws on minimum standards of heating for a comfortable workplace.)

The rationale for doing so is that almost every building where people gather aside from private homes is someone’s workplace.

The bill also empowers the Health and Safety Authority to measure clean air in the workplace and to issue improvement or prohibition notices as appropriate – similar to what happens to restaurants that breach food safety rules.

It empowers workers to request that the HSA carry out an inspection of the air in their workplaces. This aims to address a major flaw in existing health and safety legislation – that it is solely up to the HSA which workplaces it chooses to inspect.

Ms Conroy said: “It is positive that the government is not opposing our ventilation bill to give the right to clean air to workers and students.

“We cannot, however, simply let this bill sit on a shelf gathering dust – it must be progressed and implemented rapidly. We can’t, and will not be able to, get on top of this pandemic without urgent action to make sure that schools and workplaces are properly ventilated.

“Government must also assist schools and workplaces in this regard. Every classroom should be given HEPA filters, as has been done in other countries.

“All workplaces must be monitoring air quality with CO2 monitors and using HEPA filters and improved ventilation where appropriate, and the government should provide support to small businesses to do that where necessary.

“The government should now fast track this bill, without delay. We are nearly two years in to the pandemic and the time is now to pass this bill into law.”