The government has launched a public consultation on whether Sunday shopping hours should be “relaxed”. This would allow the larger stores to open for more than the six hours they are currently allowed. Longer opening hours would allow them to open as long as smaller shops and, for example, pubs. I think we all know what’s going to happen: once the consultation has been completed, shops will be open just like they are in the week and Sunday will be just like any other day. Isn’t this a good thing?
I rather like Sundays. For me, they present an opportunity to do as little as possible, apart from reading the newspaper and eating a hearty dinner. I have worked on Sundays, in both the private sector and the public sector and there are significant differences for workers. In the Civil Service, if you worked weekends, it was voluntary and you were paid “double time”. When I worked for Asda, on 16p an hour over the national minimum wage, weekend work was part of your “normal” working week and no premium payment was made. I suspect this is the norm rather than the exception.
I am going to assume that shops will be able for as long and that the consultation is a bit of a sham. The government would not have suggested the measure unless they wanted it to happen. They see a boost to business and more (low paid) jobs might be created. Within a decade, weekends will not exist at all, except by name. We will genuinely be living in a 24/7 world. Making the reasonable assumption that extended Sunday trading is all but a done deal, it would be good if safeguards would be put in place for workers.
Many religious people decline to work on Sundays but then so, as an atheist and secularist, do I. I do not want to not work on Sundays for matters of religious superstition but because I like to see my family once in a while. I would not put the preferences of the devout above those of the non-believer. If I don’t work on Sundays, I shouldn’t have to. But if a job comes along, then I strongly believe that that if it involves weekend work, then premium payments should be made. If businesses are set to make more money by opening on weekends, should not the workers benefit too? I think so.
Sunday opening should have no impact on religion. People would have the choice between visiting their local place of worship or taking a trip to IKEA. Now, for me, that’s Hobson’s choice, two places I would never want to visit under any circumstances whatsoever, so I’d choose neither and hide under the quilt cover.
Make no mistake, the change to Sunday opening will change everything. Already, Boris Johnson wants to compel tube drivers to work all night and David Cameron wants to force NHS staff to work more at weekends. It is quite clear that the Tory Party wants to make every day the same and I believe that is what will happen, including areas which you never thought possible. Because once more things start to happen on a Sunday, so employers everywhere else will seek to expand services and compel everyone else to work throughout the weekend too. In short, every day will be the same.
I am not sure it’s a great idea but it would be nice to have a national debate about it. Additional Sunday trading could affect all of us, not necessarily in a good way.
