Tories Attempt To Scrap Sunday Trading Laws Increasing Stress For Shop Workers
As consumerism is taking control of our lives and we rush around 7 days a week shopping and Sunday becomes like any other working day, little concern is being taken for the impact on shop workers lives, those of the ir families; and the work related stress this causes.
Now the government's Deregulation Bill is being used to remove all control from Sunday trading, or is it?
Shopworkers trade union leader John Hannett earlier this week (13th May) criticised Conservative MP Philip Davies for tabling a series of amendments to the Government’s Deregulation Bill that would either abolish or amend the Sunday Trading Act.
Mr Davies five amendments introduced at the report stage of the Bill, which could be debated tomorrow (Wednesday 14 May 2014), would have the effect of:
1. Fully repealing the Sunday Trading Act.
2. Extending the trading window from 6 to 8 consecutive hours between 10am and 8pm.
3. Suspending the Sunday Trading Act during the Glasgow Commonwealth Games 2014.
4. Suspending the Sunday Trading Act during the Rugby World Cup 2015.
5. Exempting garden centres from the Sunday Trading Act.
John Hannett – Usdaw General Secretary said:
"I am disappointed to see these amendments tabled at the very end of the Commons scrutiny of the Deregulation Bill, a Government Bill that is not about Sunday trading.
Taken together these amendments are incoherent and threaten to take us back to the confusion of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which dogged the retail industry. On the one hand Mr Davies wants the complete deregulation of Sunday trading, but then goes on to propose a series of changes that would keep Sunday trading regulated. He is trying to face both ways at the same time."
Mr Hannett has written to Rt Hon Vince Cable MP, Business Secretary, asking him to stand by the promise he made during the passage of the Olympic Sunday Trading Bill, where he stated from the dispatch box, "Any move towards the abolition of the UK’s Sunday trading laws would require new legislation, a full consultation and extensive parliamentary scrutiny."
John Hannett continued:
"The Government was very clear in their commitment to a full consultation and extensive parliamentary scrutiny and that promise was crucial to MPs agreeing the Olympic Sunday trading suspension.
In no way do these amendments meet that pledge. They have been tabled at the latest possible time in the Bill’s passage, therefore avoiding scrutiny at second reading and committee stage. There has been no consultation whatsoever and they could be debated in the Commons tomorrow, just one day after they were published. It would be a scandal if the Government were to do anything other than oppose.
The Sunday Trading Act offered a fair compromise between competing views that allowed large stores some opportunity to trade, whilst largely retaining Sunday as a special day and giving shopworkers a breather in an otherwise 24-hour a day industry.
"Many retailers have recognised that extending the hours of opening would simply increase overheads without raising extra revenue through the tills and that is the last thing the sector needs in what are difficult times for most.
‘We have a settled Sunday trading regime and I would strongly urge Mr Davies to withdraw these amendments and focus on the real issues facing the retail industry and their customers."
Source: USDAW / Unionsafety
