easter sunday trading

The union for retail workers is urging shop workers, community groups, churches and the general public to oppose renewed efforts to open shops for business on Easter Sunday.

The National Distribution Union’s call follows the release of a Government discussion document which contains options for reducing shop trading protections and which is open for public submissions until December 14.

Discussion around Easter trading restrictions is being encouraged through a document launched today by Labour Minister Trevor Mallard and Justice Minister Annette King.

"Easter trading continues to attract a range of opinions, and the Labour-led government is conscious of the requirement to balance the needs of a wide variety of organisations and individuals with different beliefs and preferences," Trevor Mallard said.

"The Easter Trading and Holidays Legislation discussion document we have released today considers the different legislation that affects Easter Trading and proposes a number of options for possible change in three key areas."

The key question areas are:

• what should happen to the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 and Sale of Liquor Act 1989, particularly in regard to Easter Sunday
• what should happen with the status of Easter Sunday
• whether the enforceability and penalty regime for the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 needs amendment, and the issue of adequate employee/leaseholder protection against the compulsion to work/trade on Easter Sunday.

Trevor Mallard noted that none of the options proposed reducing the holiday weekend.

Annette King said officials would collect and analyse submissions and present a comprehensive set of recommendations for consideration.

The discussion document has been sent to a wide variety of individuals (including those who made submissions on Jacqui Dean’s and Steve Chadwick’s shop trading bills last year), businesses, social partners and a number of public service organisations for comment.

"This issue has been the focus of public attention for a number of years and we recognise the requirement to consult as widely as possible. We strongly encourage employers, unions, industry groups, individuals and other groups in society to consider this discussion document and provide their views," Annette King said.

The deadline for submissions is December 14.

A summary of the key options follows. The full discussion document is available now at www.dol.govt.nz/consultation/shoptrading

The options proposed for public consideration and comment reflect the differing views on how to recognise the significance of the four day Easter weekend. For example, whether continuing to recognise the significance of the Easter weekend involves ensuring that retailers and retail workers have time off work to be with their families, or whether it is about enabling shops to trade to meet tourist and consumer demand, or about preserving the religious significance of the weekend by restricting trading.

The first decision area focuses on what should happen to the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 and Sale of Liquor Act 1989, particularly in regard to Easter Sunday. Three options are presented in relation to this issue, these are:

• Option 1: Retain the status quo.
• Option 2: Reinstate the exemption-making provision for shop trading to exempt specific areas from trading restrictions and enable sale of liquor exemptions to be considered at the same time.
• Option 3: Remove the trading restrictions under the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 and Sale of Liquor Act 1989 for Easter Sunday.

The second decision area focuses on what should happen with the status of Easter Sunday, and four options are presented in relation to this issue, these are:

• Option 1: Retain the status quo.
• Option 2: Increase the number of public holidays to 12 by making Easter Sunday the 12th public holiday.
• Option 3: Maintain the number of public holidays at 11 by making Easter Sunday a public holiday, subject to ‘mondayisation’ arrangements similar to Christmas and New Year holidays when they fall on Sunday .
• Option 4: Treat Easter Sunday as if it were a public holiday for employees of businesses affected by new amendments to the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 or the Sale of Liquor Act 1989. This would not apply to those that are currently able to trade under an exemption or exception.

The third decision area focuses on:

• whether the enforceability and penalty regime for the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 needs amendment, and
• on the issue of adequate employee/leaseholder protection against the compulsion to work/trade on Easter Sunday.

NB: The full discussion document is available now at www.dol.govt.nz/consultation/shoptrading

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New Zealanders may gain a public holiday with all the shopping they want as the Government prepares to launch a debate over Easter Sunday.  The Weekend Herald has learned a public discussion document will be released soon giving options for what should be allowed on the day.

Easter Sunday is not classified as a public holiday under the current law and most shops are closed. Easter Monday is already a public holiday, on which shopping is allowed and penal rates apply for those who work. 

Labour Minister Ruth Dyson said the options were being put forward to address "inconsistencies" in the holiday, shopping and sale of liquor laws.  One of the options is to remove trading restrictions and to make the day a full public holiday - increasing the number of public holidays to 12.  This means those working on Easter Sunday would enjoy the benefits in pay and lieu time that apply to public holidays such as Good Friday.

But National Distribution Union secretary Laila Harre said the fundamental issue was that shopping should be the exception rather than the rule on Easter Sunday.  The primary purpose of a public holiday was to stop people working, "not to compensate them for working".

Retailers Association chief executive John Albertson said a clear majority of its members wanted the right to open their doors on Easter Sunday.  The association did not support making Easter Sunday a public holiday.  Retailers would rather offer employees their own terms for working on the day, with workers free to say no.

Catholic Church communications director Lyndsay Freer said the church would be loath to see Easter Sunday "commercialised".

Other options in the discussion document will include keeping the current restrictions on trading and on the sale of liquor on Easter Sunday, or allowing geographic exemptions to trading for areas such as holiday resorts.

The trade union representing retail workers says it is thrilled a bill which would've extended Easter shop trading hours was defeated last night.

The bill was defeated 64 to 57 on its second reading.

The bill would have allowed territorial authorities to decide after consulting their communities whether shops in their area could open on Easter Sunday.

National Secretary of the National Distribution Union Laila Harre, says the bill's defeat is a victory for workers.

Audio here: http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/PoliticalNews/tabid/188/articleID/27169/Defaul...

Te Ururoa Flavell: speech
Thursday, 17 May 2007, 10:44 am
Speech: The Maori Party
Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill: (Stevie Chadwick);

Wednesday 16 May 2007

Te Ururoa Flavell, Member for Waiariki

Yesterday I met a woman describing herself as a wife, mother and grandmother from Whangarei. She is also a worker on the shop floor at a local warehouse. We were pleased to have a discussion with her.

She told me how this Easter, she refused to work the Sunday, and instead enjoyed time with her whanau.

Her decision was made for cultural and spiritual reasons. But upon returning to work, she was aware that her colleagues had other reasons which prevented them from being able to make the same decision that she had. She listed these as, and I quote:
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• Pressure by employers to work as a so-called ‘team’;
•

• The effect of upcoming appraisals where it appears that taking Easter Sunday off could well result in the boss claiming they were unreliable;
•

• Because of the low wages, workers felt compelled to work to earn time and a half.
•
Madam Speaker, her letter ended with a plea, “we look to all our Government leaders to protect retail workers from the kind of abusive power that can happen in corporate-owned companies”.

So I come to The Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill thinking of that wahine. And it raises some questions for us.

How well do the provisions in this Bill express the hopes and dreams of workers for a better future?

Do they take into account the views of workers on the shop-floor – the belief that an injury to one is an injury to all?

What will be the impact on workers? Indeed what is the nature of the actual demand for shops to be open on Easter Sunday?

I have heard the advocates of Easter Trading say there is a demand for shops to open. Well I need to tell you that I was at Te Hui Ahurei a Tuhoe at Easter and not one of the thousands of people there; workers and employers alike; made any suggestions that they would rather be working - so who is making the demand?

As the House already is aware, the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Act 1990 first amended shop trading hours. This was followed by the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal Amendment Act 2001, which allowed garden centres to open on Easter Sunday. And that was followed by a list of certain categories of shops that could trade on restricted days.

These changes have made New Zealand one of the most liberalised shopping nations in the world - second only to Iceland!

The fact that a precedent has been set, however, shouldn’t force anyone’s hand to determine how they vote on this Bill.

Special and Protected Days

You see Madam Speaker, this Bill, and Jacqui Dean’s before it, suggest some significant challenges to the public policy preference to retain certain special and protected days.

We believe that in areas of debate which bring with them such major alterations to public policy, then the process must as of right, involve public consultation, local Council decision-making and Ministerial oversight.

We were pleased to see in this current Bill, that much of the decision-making would reside in the context of the territorial local authority area. Indeed it would be up to Councils to determine.

However, and it’s a big ‘However’, allowing local communities to have their say through their Councils could have the potential to extend trading way beyond the concept of limited exemptions.

Exemptions should be for limited localities

The Maori Party supported the idea of territorial local authorities determining how the Act applies in their own unique situation.

But we believe that it would be preferable for exemptions to be granted to limited localities within districts rather than to the whole TLA. In Rotorua for example, that may be the crafts-market; in Auckland it could be the Viaduct or Victoria Park Market; in Porirua, it could be the North City Plaza.

And here we come to one of the most critical areas in the Stevie Chadwick Bill, related to this provision for local authorities to consult with their communities on the issue of Easter Sunday shop trading and then to make a decision appropriate for the area.

Madam Speaker, the Bill enables councils to enact special consultative procedures to find out whether locals want their shops trading on the day. The sponsor of the Bill, local member Stevie Chadwick, had suggested that the consultative procedures outlined in Part 6 of the Local Government Act 2002 would be used.

Yet, the select committee in a sort of a strange turn of events, decided instead to recommend that section 83 of the Local Government Act be used. This change cuts out section 81 of Part six – which just happens to be the particular provision for councils to consult with Maori communities.

We have to ask what’s this all about if the opportunity to consult with Maori is specifically prohibited by the Select Committee.

Exemptions should be for Genuine Exceptions

Madam Speaker, the National Distribution Union has spoken with us about the possibility of exemptions being granted according to criteria in order to limit trading to genuine cases.

A genuine case would be defined as a significant event being held in the area; a sudden population boom being experienced which is due to the location being an Easter weekend destination. We think Whanganui this Easter gone with the Hui Aranga; think Ruatoki with Te Hui Ahurei a Tuhoe; I think Wanaka with the biennial air show; and think Rotorua every Easter.

Stevie and I well know that Rotorua is the place to be, but even more so at Easter when our environment becomes alive and passionate and in the passion and swing of Latin America.

Every Easter, Rotorua gets into the groove – that’s the samba groove and salsa curves of the Jambalaya – the biggest Latin and Pasifika dance and music festival in Aotearoa. Forget about the‘dancing with the stars’ - for three days and four nights, Rotorua transforms into a massive dance party.

Easter hui; Jambalaya; airshows; no matter how spectacular - are all significant deviations to the norm - the type of exemption we could envisage as being associated with a major festival.

Madam Speaker, as Member for Waiariki I would have supported a Bill which responded to the unique needs of unique places – such as Rotorua; or other areas which have a genuine case.

I would have supported a case for genuine retailers to apply for an exemption to attract the tourist dollar, rather than just another commercial shopping day. A specific purpose for a specific area.

However there was always a concern with this Bill in that the scope went so wide as to include everyone.

And worse yet, the Select Committee removed Section 81 – which mandated the requirement to consult with Maori.

If the Member for Rotorua, Stevie, had put up a Bill which was specific to Rotorua, and had those exemptions in place, I would have happily looked to supporting such a proposal.

The Cost of Work

Madam Speaker, I want to just return to the central issue at stake in this Bill – the cost of a decent day’s work. And decent is an interesting concept to ponder further.

Our research says that a comparison of the proportion of employees working fifty or more hours per week among a selection of OECD countries shows that New Zealand has one of the highest proportions of workers putting in long hours of paid work.

Easter Sunday and Good Friday already have significance to Christians as occasions of special meaning. But in the context of concerns about long hours of paid work, we are also concerned about the possible negative effects for families and children of taking out an extra day from an already pressured family calendar. As any of the parents of teenagers in the House could verify, that life is so busy for many of them that one almost needs to text in appointments for ‘family time’ to their busy schedules as it is – let alone, deleting another two days.

In other research, results from the UNICEF/Innocenti International report at the start of this year, threw up a whole lot of hard questions about how much time New Zealand families have to enjoy being together.

Unfortunately, we are lagging behind many other economically poorer countries in variables such as parents spending time with their children; sharing a meal together; giving due attention to their children.

So Madam Speaker, the Maori Party believes we have to start talking seriously about the way in which New Zealanders balance the ever-competing pressures of paid work with the immeasurable value of quality family time.

Workers and families have frequently reinforced that the need to earn enough income, the pressure of workplace practices have made it hard, in fact almost impossible to have a balanced life.

So Madam Speaker, as we all examine our conscience in the process of determining our position, we must not let the importance of whanaungatanga be undermined.

The principle of whanaungatanga recognises that the people are our true wealth; that an investment in whanau will provide a compelling foundation for future growth.

We need to consider the benefits to employersand employees; to ensure that there are protections for workers; and to always hold firm to those who will be with us at the start of the working day, at the end of a working life, and in all the hours in between.

And it is in light of that principle that we must vote against the Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill.

ENDS

A bill that would have allowed shops to open on Good Friday and Easter Sunday was defeated 84-37 on its second reading in Parliament last night.

The member's bill was drafted by National's Otago MP Jacqui Dean, and when it was introduced in May last year it provided for limited opening hours from 10am to 5pm in two places in the country, Wanaka and Tauranga.

A select committee changed it to unrestricted opening hours across the whole country.

Another bill to change Easter Trading laws has just started its second reading debate.

It is also a member's bill, promoted by Labour's Rotorua MP Steve Chadwick.

Her bill would allow local authorities to decide whether shops in their area could open on Easter Sunday only.

Both bills are subject to conscience votes.

They could not both be passed because they contradict each other. Ms Chadwick's is thought to have a better chance.

The second reading debate is expected to finish on May 16, when a vote will be taken.

Unions and churches oppose both the bills.

The National Distribution Union (NDU) said last night the defeat of Ms Deans' bill was a "positive sign".

"Parliament has rejected the immediate liberalisation of shop trading at Easter," said NDU national secretary Laila Harre.

"It now needs to reject the slow burning Chadwick bill which would hand the power to local councils."

Ms Harre said while the union was willing to look at ways in which exceptions to the general prohibition on opening at Easter could be modernised, neither of the bills were suitable platforms to do this.

"There is plenty of time between now and next Easter to develop an exemption process which is consistent with the original intention of exemptions - which was to ensure that trading should be the exception rather than the rule," she said.

"It's time that retail workers, the people who will be most directly affected, to have their collective voice heard."

Union leader Laila Harre says Rotorua MP Steve Chadwick's bill for shops to open on Easter Sundays will see workers bullied into working.

Ms Harre, who has been in Rotorua this week in her role as National Distribution Union secretary, told the Daily Post she had about 8000 retail members in the union and a majority were against working on Easter Sunday.

She said the union had always advocated there should be three-and-a-half days a year where there is no trading.

"We have never had a member of ours who works in shops trying to change this policy."

She said despite the bill allowing staff to not work if they don't want to, she said the pressure on those workers, particularly in smaller businesses, would be huge.

"We have Members of Parliament like Steve Chadwick who live in completely different worlds than shop workers.

"Most shop workers live hand to mouth on low wages and are not in a position to stand up and refuse to work.

"It's good to have that protection [in the bill] but it's not worth anything."

Mrs Chadwick said Ms Harre had a valid point and she would be happy to make amendments to her bill if anyone could see a better way.

"If someone gives me the wording, I would be quite happy to put that through as an amendment but no one has."

She said several of her colleagues, including Minister of Labour Ruth Dyson, were working on ways to get stronger worker protection which could end up being an amendment to her bill.

That could include ensuring staff who worked Easter Sunday got time and a half as well as a day in lieu, she said.

Mrs Chadwick's Shop Trading Hours Act Repeal (Easter Trading) Amendment Bill is due to be heard in Parliament next month.

If passed, it will allow local authorities to decide if shops in their area can trade on Easter Sunday.

It will see all workers rostered to work on Easter Sunday covered by the Holidays Act 2003. If passed, local authorities will consult with their communities before deciding whether shops in their areas can open on Easter Sunday.