Bid to end Christmas Day shopping

12 April 2012

A bid to stop large stores opening on Christmas Day was taking place in the House of Lords today.

Lord Davies of Coity, former Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) general secretary, was urging peers to give a Second Reading to the Christmas Day (Trading) Bill which seeks to protect the traditional December 25 break for shopworkers.

It has come under increasing threat since last year when a number of High Street stores opened.

Usdaw general secretary Bill Connor said: "This Bill is an important measure that affects all shopworkers. In recent years there have been more and more shops opening their doors on December 25.

"Last year Woolworths, Budgens, Sainsbury and the Co-op opened some of their shops, forcing workers to abandon their families and go into work.

"We believe that Christmas is a very special time and that shopworkers should be allowed to spend their day in whatever way they wish.

"The Christmas and New Year period is the busiest time in retail. Most shopworkers are not allowed to take any holiday during December and early January. We now have round-the-clock, 24-hour trading. The sales start on Boxing Day.

"I don't think it is too much to ask that staff are allowed the day off on December 25."

The Christmas Day (Trading) Bill received overwhelming support amongst MPs when it was presented to the House of Commons earlier this year, but it ran out of time when the General Election was called.

It was also popular with the general public with more than 150,000 people signing a petition calling for the banning of Christmas Day trading.

Lord Davies said: "It is a simple measure that seeks to correct an anomaly in the current law, which stops shops from opening on Christmas Day only when it falls on a Sunday.

"I don't believe shops should open on Christmas Day, regardless of what day of the week it falls and that is what my Bill aims to do."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT