Union aims fire at relaxation of opening hours for the Olympics
A TRADE union has lashed out at government plans to liberalise Sunday trading laws during the Olympics, saying that shop staff would be forced into working longer and less sociable hours – an argument dismissed by retailers.
The Usdaw union has said plans to allow wider Sunday trading for eight weeks, starting from 22 July, are being rushed.
“The vast majority of shop-workers don’t want to work extra hours on a Sunday and they quite rightly blame their increasingly difficult struggle to maintain a semblance of normal family life on the twin demands for more flexibility and unsocial working hours,” Usdaw said.
Yet the British Retail Consortium (BRC) denied the allegations, arguing that the Sunday trading liberalisation in 1994 provided extra work opportunities, particularly for part-time employees. “The notion that Sunday trading means that employees are forced to work longer is not borne out by the facts,” a spokesman said yesterday.
Retailers are divided over plans for further relaxation of trading restrictions, but some analysts want the coalition to go even further. “Politicians should not be asking whether the restrictions should be relaxed for the Olympics, but whether they should be done away with altogether,” commented Professor Len Shackleton from the Institute of Economic Affairs.