To think shops should be open longer Sundays

[Habba]

We aren't a religious country, churches are empty and it would be great to do the weekly shop at 6-7pm on a Sunday when the children are in bed.

Dragging them around busy shops during the day would give me more family time.

Scotland manages just fine, people up there find it bizzare the government forces shops here to close.

Kazzyhoward - interesting point regarding people working multiple low paid jobs to avoid paying NI. I wonder if they realise that they won’t have the qualifying years to claim the full state pension!?

EwItsAHooman - completely agree, if you look at the USDAW statistics, the treatment of retail workers is shocking.

www.usdaw.org.uk/About-Us/News/2018/Mar/Violence-against-shopworkers-has-significantly-inc

Violence towards retail workers has increased by 25%. Then add in minimum wage, soul-destroying, boring tasks, being made to work extra hours. It’s awful.

They don’t even get Boxing Day off! In at 5am for the sales for no extra pay. At least John Lewis stores are closed.

Slipperboots Mon 03-Dec-18 09:41:35

"There isn’t the infrastructure to open longer hours on Sunday"

Exactly Which is why retail workers in some cases have to pay extortionate Boxing Day cab fares to get to work.

You cant compare it with healthcare workers because they knew that unsocial hours were involved before they trained for and took the job.

Someone who started working for Next 10 to 15 years ago couldnt possibly have known then that they would be expected to go in at 4 am on Boxing Day.

I try very hard not to shop on a Sunday.

If I do I apologise to the checkout person.

A plan to run NHS services 24/7 was quietly shelved. The idea was you could see have an outpatient appointment with a physio on a Sunday morning or a routine x-ray appointment.

The NHS doesn’t have the staff to run it nor can it afford the unsocial hours supplements to pay staff extra for out of hours work.

Retail workers don't just work six hours on a Sunday on the shop floor. I have to start 2.5 hour before store opens for cash/general office work before starting on the shop floor, so there's no way I'm working until 7pm thank you. Others have to be around for stocking shelves, keep store tidy and cashing up, all out of opening hours. The ops team (shelf stackers start at 5am in the week, so surely deserve a day starting a bit later and finishing earlier.

YABU. And I assume you don't work in retail so you have no idea how shit it is to have to work Sundays.

The opt-out clause is bullshit too. You are forced to work by being pressured and usually in your contract anyway.

It has nothing to do with religion (although churches are empty?!? Have you been in one recently on a Sunday....they aren't empty). It has to do with giving people time off on a set day and time so it gives them one day a week that they know they have off to spend with family, friends or alone resting. It is good and necessary for people's mental health.

"Cool. I'd like my bank, call centres, insurance office, GP, post office, dentist etc open on a Sunday so if we're making Sunday just like any other day everyone can work"

Yep And if we are making it just like any other day then taxi drivers can stop charging time and a half/ double time fares.

YABU.

If you can’t get yourself organised on the other 6 days when shops are open 24/7, why do you think you’ll manage it in on a Sunday?

A lot of people are saying that workers can opt out. Err, in reality that doesn’t happen.

Also, what happens to small independent stores with limited staff? They will either have decrease profits due to employing staff for longer, or not open.

YABU, there has to be some quiet time in our busy weeks! In Australia they still close all of Sunday!

Where the hell do you live? Under a rock? I’m in Australia and everywhere I know opens 7/8am-8/10pm for food shopping and 10am-4pm for general shopping on Sundays. The only exceptions being regional areas where they finish earlier on Sundays. Sure, the outback back of bumfuck won’t be open on Sundays but then you would hardly typify a country by an outback country town.

I work 2 Sundays and a Saturday out of 4 weeks, If I have to work a weekend (which I do with the profession I chose that has retail hours) I'd much rather work a Sunday as I get a bit more time with my children in the morning and evening. When I work a Saturday I barely see them.
The shops are open long enough hours as it is, as someone else says, what about the other 6 days they are open until 10pm or even 24/7, the small "corner" shops are open late on a Sunday for the emergency items. I don't think clothes, DIY, large food shops need to open longer on a Sunday.

YANBU.

Plenty of people work unsocial hours. Lots of people find it easier. Some people have to. Enhanced rates of pay (usually) make up for this.

Retail staff often work once the shop is closed anyway. They're not all "putting their children to bed" on a Sunday night any more than nurses are.

I'd love to be able to go to the shops after work on a Sunday tbh. I loved it during the olympics when the Sunday trading laws were suspended.

I don't buy the notion that closing at 4pm one day a week gives retail staff much of a break either.

I work in healthcare, so shifts cover the full 24/7 period, 365 days a year. It doesn't mean any one person is working all of those hours! From my point of view, being able to go shopping on a Sunday morning straight from my night shift would be fabulous. Monday to Friday I have a child to get up, dressed & ready for school and on a Saturday I need to get to bed as I am generally working the night shift again later on.

Sunday is my only day I don't have to get anyone ready for anything and don't have to go to work myself later on.

YANBU
If retail staff do more and more they will also earn more and more. People want work!
Practically everyone has to work on a Sunday to prepare for Monday. In retail at least you don't take work home with you.
NHS and health workers conditions have also changed massively in 10, 15 years so that's not a good comparison.
Small independent ships will make more money and profit due to being open longer to sell to people.
Honestly no wonder this country is economically screwed if this is most people's level of thinking.

After my husband died I loved working weekends and public holidays because it was the loneliest time for me.

Don't assume people working unusual hours are unhappy about it.

Shops are open too long already. Retail workers need a break - some working Christmas Eve and Boxing Day having already worked late every night of the week.

Ridiculous - how can this endless shopping be necessary, particularly as so much is available on line.

Retail workers would only want 'more hours' as they are paid such crap wages in the first place.

@Polarbearflavour This video appeared over the weekend. No violence involved.

I had to get DH to watch it as well to be sure i heard what i thought i heard but it sounds like the retail worker is being threatened with the loss of his job because of preventing someone from filming in the store.

I live in Scotland. Most 24hr supermarkets are open 24hrs on a Sunday too. I didn’t realise it was different in England.

Shops are open too long already. Retail workers need a break - some working Christmas Eve and Boxing Day having already worked late every night of the week

Same as bar and restaurant workers then.

Since when do we only do anything because it’s “necessary”?

Yes I could easily do all my shopping in regular English opening hours but I don’t want to. I like being able to shop at other times of my choosing. Same as people might want to go to the trampoline park/pub/cinema etc. Going to those things on a Sunday evening isn’t “necessary” either.

I see there’s been no response from the “keep Sunday special” mob about why this only applies to shop workers and not other workers who get treated like shit for a low wage.

Yabu. Considering they're open late the rest of the week. Jobs and customers expect so much.
At least when it is all tonic, you can shop until you drop.
I have not seen DP in weeks, I love a Sunday evening. We will not spend a day together until Christmas day but it will have to be a quiet one as the shopping will start again St Stephen's day.

All workers serving the public face to face need better hours. Employers will keep supplying if people are demaning at the cost of employees family. Mostly for so a wage.

Yanbu.
Lots of Jobs have unsociable hours, nobody is forced into retail. It would also help the economy.

There is no opt out clause for a Sunday in my contract
I also get paid exactly the same on a Sunday as I do any other day, same with bank holidays. Infact I have to use holidays to ‘book’ off Xmas day despite the fact we’re not open so couldn’t go to work even if I tried. We also have been told that overtime is completely out of the question. We work our contracted hours and that is that. Even if we were open longer on a Sunday it would be of no benefit to me, though I would work longer as I need the money, because the hours wouldn’t be offered to me. Where I work full time contracts are no longer offered (I work just shy of, so taking a second job isn’t really an option unless I had no time to myself at all )

Where are these magical retail jobs that some people seem to think exist please, I would love one haha