Following my post from a few years ago on this topic it seemed a contentious topic to abolish the Sunday trading laws, but overall people were for it.

Since then I have lived here a little longer and things have changed a bit. Now select Lidl stores are granted extended Sunday trading hours for about 4 months of the year. This seems to be some councils like it some don't allow it – I have no idea why.

I have also recently learned something that makes the law even more ridiculous! There is NOTHING stopping workers of large shops working on a Sunday. Primark for example have their workers there from 9am on some Sundays to tidy up etc.

So who is this law protecting exactly?

by ScottishNational

9 comments

  2. It’s really annoying when you wake up in the morning on Sunday and have to wait 6 hours for shops to open before you can actually go and and buy something.

    If you need to drive then you usually end up stuck in traffic because understandably everyone else leaves their house at 1pm when the shops are finally open. Waste of everyone’s time.

  3. Never made sense to me. When I worked in retail I was always in on Sundays from 9/10am … long before the store opened to stock, tidy up & down whatever else needed done etc.

  4. Protects no one, but Religious elements believe you should be praying, not paying.

    I work in retail, and will be coming in for 11am in our store. It’s very embarrassing having to explain to visitors (usually hen parties/stags who are standing outside closed doors from their check-out time of 11am) that we can’t open doors until 12:45 – it gets worse when you then explain they then can’t purchase anything for 15 minutes.

    It’s easily our most ridiculous law.

  5. It will only take one legal challenge to shut this down. Ultimately the actual law has not been changed (because Stormont never do anything) but councils have just decided not to take any enforcement action. It’s ridiculous, but they are still breaking the law opening early, just with impunity.

  7. While it sounds good for us to be able to access goods and food at a convenient time on a Sunday, but can’t fucking store workers get a lie in one day a week also?

  8. Now we’ll likely be in a position where DUP and or highly unionist driven councils seek to enforce the shut down, and others don’t.

  9. As someone who did retail for 8 years:

    THIS ARGUEMENT IS FRAMED AS RELIGIOUS WANKERY RATHER THAN CAPITALIST WANKERY AND IT DOES MY TITS IN.

    Thanks.

    Seriously, you have access to goods such as food if you need it on a sunday morning as the current law stands. If you need to buy clothes/tv/hoover you can do it, just later. I personally cant comprehend the rush to part with money, especially when the wider conversation at the moment is about how tight people are getting it financially.

    Tighten the employment law up if anything in favour of workers, make retail outlets making staff come it early on Sunday OT only and optional. Employees who need Sunday AM work can chose to be exempt. If they are struggling to get staff corporations will need to bring back Sunday rates, which in my own place of work while in retail were cut from time and a half to time and a quarter. Retail workers are often low income/causal, often not organised Union wise, and as such easy for larger corporations to take advantage of.

    One of the other things that agitates me is that part of these laws being in place was to support small independent retailers, generally smaller Sq Ft stores, and its more of a sign that our independent sector has been gutted by major firms.

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