Sunday Trading

Design_Dude

Well in many contracts you have to work sundays as part of the job, so yes.

L1011

But were you held at gunpoint and forced to take that job? No. Its a free employment market. You actively chose to accept that job.

Design_Dude

O come on of course your not, all im saying that there is a lot of pressure from companies nowadays to work on sundays and it is increasingly hard to get a liked job that doesnt envolve sunday work

L1011

Still doesn't mean you're in any way obliged to work Sundays by 'the man' now does it?

I work in a 7 day a week firm. I have a 5 day a week contract - and those happen to be Monday through Friday, but they aren't 9-5. Same is offered to quite a lot of the new hires to this day.

cast_iron

Ridiculous thread.

Design_Dude

good input cast_iron

Doctor DooM

I see this thread has gone to the extremes...

Design_Dude

indeed it has!

Corruptedmorals

My shop opens on Sundays 10-7, New Year's Day and all other public holidays 12-6. Aside from Christmas and Stephens Day, I think we have Easter Sunday off too. I don't mind working Sundays, time and a half pay:) We're supposed to work 3 out of 4 Sundays but that's abused. Because I can't work Tuesday-Thursday, I ALWAYS work Sundays, I work Friday-Mondays, 20 hours which is about €180- Sunday can be nearly €100 of that, so I love Sundays..

Sometimes they're nearly as busy as Saturdays..which is kinda sad. Before I started working, I never went shopping on Sundays.

Design_Dude

Its the comsumerisation of everything thats the problem

Danno

Design_Dude wrote: »

Its the comsumerisation of everything thats the problem

Exactly. Greed and Money is in the hearts and minds of too many people today. Work-Life Balance FTW!

Design_Dude

Aye

Gauge

Am I the only person who loves working on Sundays? I'm a student working part time, if shops weren't open on Sundays I'd lose 50% of my weekly wage. It's extremely handy for people like me!

Guy:Incognito

So should everything sahut down on a sunday so that everyone can be with their families? Power stations, Emergency services, hospitals, Tv, pub, restaurants etc? Or just retail because thats what the people maoning do? What about newsagents , petrol stations?


Design dude, you say your a christian, do you go to church? Should priests/Rabi's/ministers etc not have sunday off too?

Design_Dude

Firstly, of course the essential services cant close down on sundays, but are clothes shope etc really essential to have open 7 days a week?


Yes, i am a christian and go to church every sunday. Sunday is, if your a christian a day set aside for worship family etc, so obviously worship envolves a leader. Apart from leading church on a sunday, most priests/ministers take the rest of sunday off

Hanley

Design_Dude wrote: »

Firstly, of course the essential services cant close down on sundays, but are clothes shope etc really essential to have open 7 days a week?


Yes, i am a christian and go to church every sunday. Sunday is, if your a christian a day set aside for worship family etc, so obviously worship envolves a leader. Apart from leading church on a sunday, most priests/ministers take the rest of sunday off

If people weren't going shopping on Sunday's then the shops wouldn't be open.

If the shops were closed on Sundays then what would people do?
-Visit a relative? That's fair enough
-Go for a picnic? Hard to do with Irish weather
-A nice meal perhaps? you better cook it yourself, cos the restaurants can't open Sundays
-Cinema/Kids amusment area? Not on a Sunday

C'mon, suggest some real, workable alternatives as to what people can do on a Sunday that doesn't involve other people outside of the essential services sector having to work. Not trying to start a fight, I'm genuinely curious!

Sam Vimes

Design_Dude wrote: »

Firstly, of course the essential services cant close down on sundays, but are clothes shope etc really essential to have open 7 days a week?


Yes, i am a christian and go to church every sunday. Sunday is, if your a christian a day set aside for worship family etc, so obviously worship envolves a leader. Apart from leading church on a sunday, most priests/ministers take the rest of sunday off

i don't mean to be smart but by that logic i've taken every day of my life off except the parts of those days that i worked

Guy:Incognito

Design_Dude wrote: »

Firstly, of course the essential services cant close down on sundays, but are clothes shope etc really essential to have open 7 days a week?


Yes, i am a christian and go to church every sunday. Sunday is, if your a christian a day set aside for worship family etc, so obviously worship envolves a leader. Apart from leading church on a sunday, most priests/ministers take the rest of sunday off

TV stations, Pubs, restaurants, newsagents/ sports etc are not essential services .

This whole thing just smacks of "I shouldnt have to work on Sunday but couldnt gie a **** whether other people do or not.It all comes abck to the simple point fo changing jobs if your one doesnt suit or you dont like aspects of it. If it's "too much hassle" or "doesnt suit" that just means it would take more effort to change than to stay and your not willing to put in that effort.


I also assume you've never bought anythign on a Sunday? A drink in a shop? A newspaper?

ztoical

Design_Dude wrote: »

Firstly, of course the essential services cant close down on sundays, but are clothes shope etc really essential to have open 7 days a week?


Yes, i am a christian and go to church every sunday. Sunday is, if your a christian a day set aside for worship family etc, so obviously worship envolves a leader. Apart from leading church on a sunday, most priests/ministers take the rest of sunday off

well I'm not christian and I don't like the idea of someone else's religion dictating what does and doesn't happen.

Also as I've already mentioned why should my mum as a doctor be expected to work sundays after already working six full days that week but someone working in a clothes shop who by law can't work more then X amount of days a week have the day off? Most of the time its part time staff who work sundays, most don't work more then 20 hours a week - full time staff might have to only work one sunday a month and in some shops they only work one sunday a year [most book stores only have full times staff work one sunday leading up to xmas]

Danno

Which is more important? Your Mum seeing a sick patient or the OP having to work to sell washing machines?

faceman

think i will go look at washing machines today.

Gillo

ztoical wrote: »

Also as I've already mentioned why should my mum as a doctor be expected to work sundays after already working six full days that week but someone working in a clothes shop who by law can't work more then X amount of days a week have the day off? Most of the time its part time staff who work sundays, most don't work more then 20 hours a week - full time staff might have to only work one sunday a month and in some shops they only work one sunday a year [most book stores only have full times staff work one sunday leading up to xmas]

Theres's a massive difference between a Doctor working on a Sunday and retail staff working on a Sunday, I'm sure you'd also be happy for your mother to take a drop in pay so she also earns the same as retail staff.

A lot of full time staff work on Sundays also.

faceman

ztoical wrote: »

Also as I've already mentioned why should my mum as a doctor be expected to work sundays after already working six full days that week but someone working in a clothes shop who by law can't work more then X amount of days a week have the day off?

Because no one is ever sick on a sunday...

Seriously though, I could never understand the restrictive hours of many GP surgeries in Ireland

Sam Vimes

Danno wrote: »

Which is more important? Your Mum seeing a sick patient or the OP having to work to sell washing machines?

who decides what's important enough to stay open on a sunday? should food stores close? should pubs close? what about toll roads?

what if someone is going on a holiday tomorrow and urgently needs to wash their clothes but their washing machine is broken!!!!???

what about dunnes that has both a food and drapery section? should they be forced to close the drapery section on a sunday?

ztoical

Gillo wrote: »

Theres's a massive difference between a Doctor working on a Sunday and retail staff working on a Sunday

faceman wrote: »

Because no one is ever sick on a sunday...

Why? there are medical facilities in most towns and country areas set up now just for out of hours and hospital casualty rooms are open 24 hours 7 days a week - honestly if someone is so sick they can't wait till 8am monday morning to go to their GP then they should be going straight to hospital. And if you want a GP to be open on a sunday then your going to need the chemists to open on sundays as well - no point in getting a script for drugs from a doctor if you can't fill it till monday morning - and why stop at doctors - shouldn't dentists and vets open as well?

All the doctors in my home town signed up to a rota, they set up a communal office for them all to use and there is actually a doctor there from 12 till 12 every saturday/sunday/holiday including xmas and new years and one of them is then on call ever night from midnight till 8am every night of the year. If you ring any doctor in the towns number during out of hours you'll be told this, told where that office is and given the number of the office to call yet people still show up to my mothers house - not her business but her home - demanding to be seen because they don't want to queue at the other place cus and I qutoe "they don't want to waste their whole sunday in a doctors office".

A GP's office is the same as any other business, they have opening and closing hours just like shops but people seem to think they should be at their beck and call 24/7 - and yes they get paid more then retail staff cus honestly they put up with alot more **** then I've ever got when I worked retail. Also it takes a lot more skill and study to become a doctor then it does to work a bloody till.

Most retail places that open on sundays work much shorter hours then they do during the week. The majority are open between 11am and 6/7pm - a few open for very long hours - example I worked in Easons in the train station and I had to be at the shop at 6.30am and was there till 7pm but everyone who worked sundays was part time and two only worked sundays - but its only a handful that would work those hours. Plus sundays is usually piss easy work - theres no big deliveries to stores on sundays so most of the time staff are just cleaning or doing busy work when the shop is quite. My friend is a riding instructor and has to work every sunday as its always very busy esp if the weather is nice. She has to be in work before sun raise to take care of all the horses and is there till its to dark to ride out - which during the summer is a pretty long day. She doesn't mind at all as she gets two days off during the week and only works every 3rd saturday and her boyfriend who works a 9-5 job loves it as he takes sunday as daddy/daughter day with their 3 year old.

at least if your working retail on a sunday you know what hours your working you show up at X time and go home at Y time, no chance of you being made to stay late - If your stuck working any job that works to deadlines rather then set hours you more then often end up working all day sunday and most of the night too if theres a big dead line due. Any creative field is like that - I work in animation and have worked 14 hour days 7 days a week for months on end to meet a deadline. And its not just creative jobs, I've plenty of friends who work in fiance and find themselves working sundays, their job doesn't say they have to but in order to get their work done they have to put in the extra hours esp if its near months end. But thats the difference between a job and career - you'll put that extra effort in for something you love doing.

Corruptedmorals

Sam Vimes wrote: »

what about dunnes that has both a food and drapery section? should they be forced to close the drapery section on a sunday?

I work in Dunnes drapery! I think for New Year's Day and Patrick's Day, they should have a big screen around the escalators, so people can still buy food and get in/out. Seems fair. Patrick's Day is going to SUCK, city centre.. My store made something insane like €200k on New Year's Day, so no chance of curtailing business anytime soon.

ztoical- sorry, what? Retail staff stay late any day of the week if neccessary, including Sundays. Over Christmas, we often had to stay an hour and a half after the shift was supposed to end. It's great walking down the street and seeing Ted Baker/BT2 and A/Wear staff still working.

ztoical

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

ztoical- sorry, what? Retail staff stay late any day of the week if neccessary, including Sundays. Over Christmas, we often had to stay an hour and a half after the shift was supposed to end. It's great walking down the street and seeing Ted Baker/BT2 and A/Wear staff still working.

certain stores do yes but staff still have set contracted hours [and if they don't then they are silly for signing the contract] If you go over your contracted hours you get paid more [usually double time] A store can't just turn around to you after you've worked your shift and tell you your staying an extra 2 hours - you either know how long your shift is before going in or the managers are stuck and ASK you to stay, you are under no obligation to stay. Nearly ever shop has extended hours over xmas but its either written into the staffs contracts that they have to work extra hours or the shifts are changed so the people staying late don't start as early as everyone else but they still work the same set hours.

who is this

But if you take away Sunday shopping then people will have to do that shopping some other time. When shops are open on weekday evenings, if someone doesn't go, and goes on Sunday instead there's a reason. Maybe that's when they want to spend time with their family (why should they have to do it on Sundays?). Maybe THAT'S when they want to relax - the time just after they've worked, when they're probably most tired?

But the main point is you can't just pick and choose what aspects of life are important enough to be regulated. Maybe family X are all completely busy on Sundays and their free time is on Saturdays. Why should the fact that your family is free on Sundays take precedence over family X?

In the end the only way it would end would be government regulation of opening hours. That's something that would be very dangerous (yes I know Germany had it till recently, but the federal law has been repealed). The regulation of opening hours is not something that the State has a legitimate interest in. So what's to stop them regulating other things simply because they think their idea of how to organise your life is better. In fact, the State has an interest in keeping them open on Sundays (since that means more employment hours, so more tax).

In the end, why shouldn't people be allowed to go shopping on Sunday, if where they want to go is open? The people who own the business have agreed to open, the workers have agreed to work (whether they like it or not, if they signed a contract allowing it, then they agreed) and the customer agrees to buy, why shouldn't they have every right to do it?

If you're Chrisitian (or anything else) and don't like it: DON'T PARTICIPATE. No matter what you say, it IS that simple. If you need the money so badly you're forced to, that's tough - either find a way to manage without that pay, or hush. If your contract obliges you to, you shouldn't have agreed to it.