Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has produced a new post-election budget, the first all-Tory budget in the UK for over 18 years. One particular announcement concerns a consultation over Sunday trading hours. It may well be that local authorities will be given the power to decide if they want to have longer Sunday trading hours in their own areas.
The announcement appears to have split major retailers. Some of them consider it to be vital in order to compete with internet traders, whilst other major retailers also have smaller convenience stores which can stay open longer anyway under current rules. These same retailers with concerns feel the current laws work just fine, and have concerns over staff costs which a longer Sunday operation would entail.
If this is to be a matter devolved for local authorities, then I would suspect that some areas will go with longer Sunday trading, whilst others won't. For those instances of local authorities embracing the longer trading hours, family safeguards will be an absolute necessity.
We do live in changing times. These are times in which many people don't work the old traditional hours any longer. What is unlikely to change though is that children will still go to school Monday to Friday. I would be very surprised if children start having to go into school on a rota anytime soon!
Any workers with children should be given safeguards which I feel should mean they do not have to work more than every other weekend day. For me, even workers without children should be given consideration in some circumstances.
What if someone's partner works Monday to Friday, whilst that same somebody is compelled to work every weekend? Would such a couple be reasonably expected to just have a day off together when one of them takes a day's holiday? Not really fair that, is it?
The announcement appears to have split major retailers. Some of them consider it to be vital in order to compete with internet traders, whilst other major retailers also have smaller convenience stores which can stay open longer anyway under current rules. These same retailers with concerns feel the current laws work just fine, and have concerns over staff costs which a longer Sunday operation would entail.
If this is to be a matter devolved for local authorities, then I would suspect that some areas will go with longer Sunday trading, whilst others won't. For those instances of local authorities embracing the longer trading hours, family safeguards will be an absolute necessity.
We do live in changing times. These are times in which many people don't work the old traditional hours any longer. What is unlikely to change though is that children will still go to school Monday to Friday. I would be very surprised if children start having to go into school on a rota anytime soon!
Any workers with children should be given safeguards which I feel should mean they do not have to work more than every other weekend day. For me, even workers without children should be given consideration in some circumstances.
What if someone's partner works Monday to Friday, whilst that same somebody is compelled to work every weekend? Would such a couple be reasonably expected to just have a day off together when one of them takes a day's holiday? Not really fair that, is it?
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