A Fresh Attack On Sunday Observance

It is being reported today that the government are intending to suspend the Sunday Trading Laws on eight weekends from July 22^nd to cover the period of the Olympics and Paralympics.  Chancellor George Osbourne has said “We've got the whole world coming to London - and the rest of the country - for the Olympics.  It would be a great shame - particularly when some of the big Olympic events are on Sunday - if the country had a closed for business sign on it." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17419351)

The government have said that they are making this move to boost the country’s economy and on one level it could be said that with the perilous state it is in our economy needs all the help that it can get; though whether extended opening will lead to an increase in spending or just a wider spread of existing spending is open to debate.  Important though the economy undoubtedly is to modern society there are other considerations that must be at least as important if not more so.

As a Christian I was opposed to the changes in the Sunday Trading Laws introduced by the last Conservative government and I am opposed to even a temporary further relaxation for mere commercial gain, especially if it is true that this is an experiment to see if permanent changes can be made in the future, as is being suggested.

I am not actually opposed to Sunday trading on what might be seen as strictly religious grounds; that Sunday is the day when we remember the greatest event in history, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.  I recognise that most people in 21^st century Britain do not go to church and either have no faith or follow other faith paths and so such observance is meaningless to them.

I am opposed to Sunday Trading on two very practical grounds:

1.    1. That despite the fact that legislation is supposed to protect the rights of workers who do not wish to work Sundays I personally know of people who are effectively forced by their employees to work on a Sunday and, in some cases, miss the chance to worship because of it.  Jobs in the retail sector are now often advertised as including Sunday working.  As the Keep Sunday Special campaign have pointed out “At present, retail staff do have a legal right to request an opt-out from working on a Sunday, but in practice very few take it up for fear of losing their job, harming their promotion prospects or damaging relationships with colleagues. A survey by Usdaw found that only 11% of their members have had the confidence to take up the opt-out, and 62% have come under pressure to work on Sundays when they didn't really want to.” (http://www.keepsundayspecial.org.uk/Web/Content/Default.aspx?Content=62)

2.    2.  That, as Rev Sally Hitchiner, of St John's Church in Ealing, West London, told the BBC: "We're concerned it could become a precedent that we could lose some of the specialness of Sunday.  Sunday should be a time for relationships, there should be a time when we put some boundaries on consumerism, so you can go to the park and play football with the kids, and take your mum breakfast in bed." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17419351 )  Sunday was always a time for families and family activities and Sunday Trading could arguably be said to have eroded this.

I think that it is time the Government reviewed Sunday Trading, with a view to tightening up rather than relaxing the Sunday Trading laws.  Stronger legal protections are needed to ensure that workers are not forced to work on Sundays against their will as a bare minimum.  No job (except those specifically for Sundays only) should be advertised as including Sunday working and it should be illegal for it to be mentioned at any stage during the recruitment and interview process.  Only once a person is employed should they be asked about their willingness to work or not work on a Sunday with the absolute right to refuse without detriment to job or career prospects.   The regulations really need to be taken further though, with a return to a ban on large shops opening on a Sunday at all; a return to the situation that existed before The Sunday Trading Act 1994; but with the regulations strictly enforced and fines large enough to prevent it being worthwhile for even the largest companies to flout the legislation.

Some of my brothers and sisters in Christ may indeed feel that shops should be closed on Sunday as a mark of respect because it is the Lord’s Day.  I don’t think that this position is tenable in a multi-faith society; but I do feel that for the other reasons given above, and for many more given by the Keep Sunday Special campaign we must protest against this latest government nonsense.