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 PrintableVersion Selling off Sunday?A crucial few weeks lie ahead for the Keep Sunday Special Campaign and a plethora of other organisations and individuals who are determined to fight off the threat of more shopping hours on a Sunday. The campaign has called on a group of eminent politicians to examine the effect that weekend working is having on community and family life. The Parliamentary panel will meet over a period of weeks and take evidence from a variety of witnesses from children and family organisations, trade unions, retailers, religious groups and consumer groups and report by April 14. Pressure from superstoresThe new threat to what remains of the family weekend comes from an alliance of major retailers calling themselves ‘Deregulate’. Members, including Tesco, Ikea, B&Q and Asda, want the Government to lift all restrictions on large-shop trading on a Sunday. They are seeking to convince the Department of Trade and Industry that the demand comes from consumers hungry to spend even more than they already do on Sunday shopping sprees. Heading the panel will be Labour’s Lord Anderson, together with Ann Widdecombe, Gary Streeter, Andy Reed and Colin Breed. Christians or others who would like to express their views to the panel may do so up until Easter by emailing maria.bazell@dti.gsi.gov.uk. Although no time schedule has been made known, it could be that new legislation concerning Sundays will be brought to the House of Commons as early as May or June. DiscrepancyOne of the first things the Panel will be asked to examine is the huge discrepancy between poll results issued by the big stores and the NOP commissioned by KSS which demonstrated that 72% of those interviewed would prefer to have a regular shared day off with their family and friends to more time to shop on a Sunday. This result does not stand alone. Usdaw, the shopworkers’ union with many members in Tesco stores, produced a similar NOP poll result. A survey of 500 shop staff found that 62% came under pressure to work on Sundays and only 11% have had the confidence to use their legal right to opt-out of Sunday working. The attitude of many backbenchers in the House of Commons has raised hopes that Parliament will not on this occasion go for an extension. Nearly 180 MPs, among them many Labour members, have signed an Early Day Motion opposing any extension to Sunday trading. There are many other concerns for the Panel to consider. Promises made in the 1990s to pay shopworkers premium rates on Sundays have been largely disregarded; ancillary workers serving the supermarkets have had to work harder for less compensation and, probably, the most serious of all effects has been on communities which have lost their local shops. In villages all over Britain the elderly, the handicapped and those without transport have found a valuable social link has been cut off when their local shop closes down. Re-engaging ChristiansCampaign Manager John Alexander says it is essential to re-engage the interest of the churches right across Britain. ‘Already many practising Christians have been denied the opportunity to worship on a Sunday and, with even three extra hours of trading on a Sunday, many more will find the opportunity to attend their local church even more limited. ‘If Christians in particular, and other faiths in general, are discriminated against in order to privilege the minority that actively want to shop and trade on a Sunday, the Government will be putting the clock back so far as non-discrimination is concerned.’ More info on the Keep Sunday Special website: http://www.keepsundayspecial.net The Campaign Manager, John Alexander, is at 3 Hooper Street, Cambridge CB1 2NZ (tel. 01223 566319, fax 01223 566359, email kss@r.f.clara.net). © Evangelicals Now - April 2006 |
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