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All we want for Christmas is two days off
21 January 2004
The campaign to stop Scotland's larger stores from opening on Christmas Day and New Year's Day is stepped up by trade union Usdaw today (Wednesday) on behalf of the country's 252,000 shopworkers.
Bruce Fraser, Scottish Divisional Officer of retail trade union Usdaw, will deliver a message to MSPs on behalf of Scotland's hard-working retail workers: "Don't let our bosses force us to work!"
Trading in larger stores had been practically non-existent in Scotland on 25th December and 1st January. But this year, Debenhams broke ranks from the rest of the major retailers by becoming the first to open larger stores on New Year's Day (in Glasgow and Edinburgh).
It was a move that caused great concern to Usdaw's 36,000 members in Scotland, who fear this could be the start of a widely-predicted trend towards commonplace opening on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Usdaw's members have always expressed a genuine worry that once one larger store opened, competitive pressures would force others to follow suit.
Bruce Fraser, Usdaw Scottish Divisional Officer, will today (Wednesday) tell MSPs that they must act to bring in legislation to stop any other retailers following Debenhams' stance.
Bruce Fraser said: "Store bosses are clearly becoming more and more tempted to abandon the special nature of Christmas Day and New Year's Day in Scotland, purely in the name of making money. This would be an absolute disaster for Scottish shopworkers. They already work long hours, with little prospect of days off in the run-up to and immediately after Christmas. Now they face being forced to work on these special days, instead of spending them at home with their families. They will be forced to work, because there would not be enough volunteers."
Bruce Fraser will state the shopworkers' case to the Scottish Parliament's Petitions Committee in Edinburgh today (Wednesday). He was asked to give evidence after presenting a petition in December, signed by over 14,000 people in Scotland and calling for legislation to force larger stores in Scotland to keep their doors closed on both Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
Usdaw is supporting a Private Members Bill from Karen Whitefield, Labour MSP for Airdrie and Shotts, which seeks to ban stores larger than 280 square metres (about the size of a tennis court) from opening on Christmas Day and New Year's Day in Scotland. The Bill has already secured the support of the required number of MSPs to allow it to go to public consultation, due to take place early in 2004.
- Retailing in Scotland employs 252,000 (one in 10 of the workforce) and the industry has a £19bn annual turnover.
- Usdaw is the UK's fifth largest trade union with over 330,000 members. More information and news releases are available at our online Newsroom.
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