Sunday trading laws may be suspended

[Kazzyhoward]

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-plan-to-lift-sunday-trading-rules-to-boost-economy-12001529

Common sense at last. Allow stores to open longer on Sundays to help avoid queues and congestion in shops. Should have been done back in March.

I feel for the staff that will be expected to work longer hours on the one day they are used to having shorter hours. No need for it.

Brilliant. It’s such an outdated practice

@Feelingpoorlysick a lot bigger sacrifices have been made in this pandemic.

About time.

I have NEVER understood Sunday trading. As a consumer, I hate it. I'm not originally from this country and it seems extremely outdated to me.

Good, and long overdue. The Sunday trading laws in England are a ridiculous anachronism. I was surprised when the restrictions were reintroduced after the Olympics, so let’s hope the reform is permanent this time. Those who wish to ‘keep Sunday special’ will still be able to do so, and the rest of us can get on with our lives.

Shop workers are not a special case, and Sunday should be a normal working day for them as it is for travel, tourism, leisure & hospitality workers.

About time, it is so antiquated.

We need to spread people out for the longer term due to Covid. Anything that reduces the number of people in any place at the same time has to be a good thing to control the virus.

I have always felt that Sunday trading hours are outdated however it's becoming obvious that the government and many organisations are taking advantage of this situation to role back employment rights etc. It's actually very worrying.

@Feelingpoorlysick

I feel for the staff that will be expected to work longer hours on the one day they are used to having shorter hours. No need for it.

Yep

No thanks. We get a lye in on Sunday and start cash/getting store ready at 8am, other days it's 5.30am

I hadn’t appreciated stores were still closed on a Sunday. They’ve been open in Scotland for years. You don’t need to feel for staff. There are plenty willing to work a Sunday.

Retail staff will have already been under much more pressure and stress than usual throughout this pandemic. This is the last thing they need.

I feel it's worrying as the retail workers need more time off ,not less!
It might work if the 24 hour stores carry on shutting earlier ( as they have been doing lately ) but I bet they soon go back to that and still open till 8 or 10 on sundays! So more pressure on the staff to do more hours.
It's just the start of the erosion of workers rights.

Hundreds of people have been made redundant. Plenty of people can only work a weekend. Most retail outlets have been closed so people will be keen to get back to work and start earning a full salary again. My experience is staff don’t have to do do more hours. They can chose to work a Sunday.

Scotland works just fine with 24 hour supermarkets and Sunday trading.

Poor staff. I think most retailers have got rid of set days and hours for staff. You get what you are given shift wise, like it or lump it. My local supermarkets its mostly women, mothers, grandmothers.

I hadn't really appreciated retail workers until all this happened. I bet they are all feeling sick at the thought.

Most retail staff would NOT be given the choice.

It will never get passed, it hasn't before. It has no real economic value either, the focus to help retail lies in rent and taxation. But as usual Asda and Morrison's will be rubbing there hands in glee, but it will have very little real £ value, people will spend roughly the same, just spread out over a longer period at extra over head costs. Just really skirting over the real issues retail has pre and post corona.

I feel for the staff that will be expected to work longer hours on the one day they are used to having shorter hours.

I used to work in retail - this wouldn’t have an impact on my working hours at the time. Remember that retail staff generally work by the hour with a cap at 37.5-40 hours; only managers are salaried, they would be the only ones expected to have a longer working week.

Retail staff don’t specifically work when the store opens until the store closes, shifts are staggered eg one person works 7-3, their colleague works 9-5 etc. They can start work before the store is open or stay an hour or 2 after it closes - so even before this change retail staff could still be asked for a full 9 hour shift on Sunday.

Personally I was a poor uni student at the time and wouldn’t have minded being able to work later shifts on Sunday, or the extra opportunity for overtime. I used to have to get taxis to work to start at 7am on Sunday because public transport wasn’t even running.

@Mightymurphy larger stores are currently restricted to six hours of trading. Smaller shops (like Sainsbury's Local) can open as usual.

There'll be plenty of newly unemployed willing to work Sundays.

I'm not sure the company's are you going to rush out and hire more staff right now. Asda had temps for a while, but talking to a friend who is a manager they have gone bar one.

My son in uni is paid per hour so will welcome a few extra hours before he goes back to uni in the autumn.

Sunday trading laws were suspended for a while during the 2012 Olympics