Retail Workers Can Rest Easy For Another Two Weeks

The National Distribution Union says that the 84 to 37 defeat of Jacqui Dean's Bill which would have opened shops on Good Friday and Easter Sunday is a positive sign. "Parliament has rejected the immediate liberalisation of shop trading at Easter. It now needs to reject the slow burning Chadwick Bill which would hand the power to local councils to open shops in any area on Easter Sunday," says Laila Harré, NDU National Secretary. "Local councils like Rotorua have already said which way they will go without any special consultation with shop workers." 80 of leading union delegates in the retail sector meeting in Auckland today reaffirmed their opposition to Easter trading, said Laila Harré. "Thousands of New Zealanders are signing the petition being circulated unions and church groups opposing both bills." "While the union has always been willing to look at ways in which exceptions to the general prohibition on opening shops at Easter could be modernised, neither the Dean nor Chadwick bills provide a suitable platform for 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. It's time that retail workers, the people who will be most directly affected, to have their collective voice heard." Retail workers are meeting in Auckland on industry issues again on Thursday this week. ENDS