The NSW government has just passed laws restricting retail opening hours, preventing trading without an exemption on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The spin in the CT and SMH is positive, saying it will allow retail staff the opportunity to spend more time with their families. However it also means retail workers miss out on the potential to earn significant loadings on these days, and consumers miss out on the chance to shop if that’s how they like to spend their public holidays. I also wonder about the people who don’t have families to spend these days with, or people who are not of a Christian faith who would rather work on Christian holidays in exchange for other days off.
Good news for the ACT though – look forward to plenty of Queanbeyanites trekking over the border for some Boxing Day specials!
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I work in retail, and..hooray. I’m one of those damn anti-social ones that want to get AWAY from the family at christmas time. (and my friends are starting to get sick of me pratically joining theirs….)
So, bah humbug, bring it on.
dvaey said :
It’s the other side to the Lebanon lifestyle I wouldn’t be too keen about.
emd, if shop owners dont want to be part of the westfield movement they can choose to open up in a quiet local shopping centre and back their own ability to attracked customers. this way they can open the hours that suit them and thier customers
If they’re located in a mall then they often have little choice. Often mall rental agreements require tennants to be open for business whenever the mall was open – and that would be dictated by the big retailers.
I don’t understand the argument that big businesses can afford to stay open and pay loadings on public holidays, but small businesses can’t. Isn’t it a business decision? Surely the profit they make on public holidays justifies the extra staff costs? Or if not, they are making the decision to operate on a loss for that day in order to increase customer loyalty – a decision that smaller businesses could make too.
housebound said :
If being ‘like lebanon’ means that all religious holidays are treated equally, regardless of faith, then why would anyone be against it? Other than the anti-muslim or anti-christian, or anti-religion viewpoints who wont be changed easily anyway.
Quote: “He cited the example of Lebanon where Christian and Muslim public holidays are widely celebrated by members of both faiths.”
Only religious holidays are sacred the govt is saying to me (in my mind). But not quite sacred enough to warrant a blanket rule (like the Holy Sabbath was and Good Friday and Xmas basically already are).
Where does that leave the rest of the non-believing world these days or what does it say to them?
My mum works every Christmas and Good Friday, at the hospital. She loves the money, can’t see why others in other industries wouldn’t. We just go over to hers for dinner now, not lunch.
Yes they are just public holidays, but none of the non Christian based holidays were mentioned. I know it’s not a biggy, all the non-religious love the holidays too for other reasons if not a day/long weekend off sometimes.
It’s just a funny rule to say some people can work, some people can’t work depending on their location/size of shop/amount of workers blah blah.. Not to mention restaurants keep on going and no one ever calls for them to shut doors, would be silly, I see this almost no different.
I personally hate the lack of Sunday shopping everywhere else has, but I bet heaps of workers here hate that, or love it for the money. But we’re given the choice as are the workers.
I am shocked (hardly surprised though) they didn’t include Sydney and Newcastle or whatever that is about.
housebound said :
They’re arguing for the introduction of 2 public holidays to mark the major Muslim holy days. Whether you agree with it or not, it’s hardly of wanting ‘us’ to ‘be like Lebanon’.
I don’t think that it would be a bad idea.
South Australia still have this in place. Everything is closed there on public holidays and Sundays. They do have some petrol stations open and a smattering of take away shops butjust about everything else is closed.
I also come from a country town nothing was open past 5:30 of an afternoon and on Saturdays everything closed at midday/one and everything was closed on sundays/public holidays. Everybody survived and found other things to do, and they still do.
The majority of people who work in retail actually don’t mind it, it means that they get days of on those days aswell, afterall it is a public holiday for them as much as it is for everybody else.
I think that the mentality of people is wrong, you don’t have to have shops open every day (that is why they came up with late night shopping in the first place) and its not like the shops are going to be closed forever its just a day or two.
Why not spend your public holidays with family and friends or just relaxing and enjoying yourself, you don’t always have to go the shops and they will be open the next day.
Correction:
dvaey said :
This article wants us to be like Lebanon. No thanks.
dvaey said :
Err, the days are public holidays no matter what religion you chose to follow, or in my case, don’t follow. Having said that, I doubt that anyone will see any real change.
Hells_Bells74 said :
Youre not the only one wondering why these laws are exclusively Christian-based.
Clown Killer said :
You also missed that it only effects the big retailers outside of Sydney and Newcastle, dont wanna piss the biggest electorates in the state off. Retailers in Sydney and Newcastle are exempted, as well as small businesses.
I doubt that we’re going to see much out of this. My understanding is that small businesses are automatically exempt from these new rules so it will only effect the big retailers.
If you took an example like Bunnings I’d say they’re probably already closed on Christmas Day, Good Friday and the first half of ANZAC day.
Ralph said :
Silly me. I thought that freedom was about the right to free speech, the absence of outward restraints, freedom of thought, religious practice, the press and the freedom to modify one’s outward circumstances.
Turns out it was actually all about shopping.
Westfield malls are what you get when you let the free market dictate trading hours. Many small businesses are not viable with those hours – the kind of specialty shops or start-ups that don’t have the sales turnover to hire staff and pay high penalty rates. If we deregulate completely, we’ll end up with nothing but malls full of chain stores. It’s only 4 days a year, perhaps if the whingers spent more time with their family and friends they wouldn’t feel the need to fill the empty void in their lives with yet more shopping for cheap imported rubbish that will probably be thrown into landfill the following week.
Two-faced Govt really, they will not allow Christianity/God/Religion (fair enough) in their schools/mandates/legislation but they go pull a stunt like this over 3 Christian holiday’s shopping times ffs (and 1 I have no idea, I’m sure it was also Christian related). I am still wondering where all the Muslim/Jewish/Hindu holidays are and why can’t I have them off (or not if I work retail/hospitality, just like Christians here do) too?
Nah just jk, wouldn’t want them, the crap ideals I have, are enough for me to deal with.
Jerry Atric said :
…as someone who lives two states away from my family and cannot always get home to see them on those special days…I like the way you think.
Unions.