PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
EFFECT OF SUNDAY TRADING ON EMPLOYEES (15 January 1993)

That this House believes that reform of Sunday trading should provide adequate protection for those who have to work on Sundays and for those employees who wish not to work on Sundays; commends the honourable Member for Ogmore for including employee protection in his Bill; notes that many of those who campaign for more widespread Sunday opening lay emphasis on employee protection but believes that the effectiveness of that protection will be totally undermined in a de-regulated situation by the Government's insistence on doing away with the last vestiges of the wages councils, whose operation has already been emasculated in recent years; notes that Winston Churchill introduced legislation to establish wages councils on the basis that, in respect of employers, bad drives out good and worse drives out bad; and believes that adequate legal and institutional frameworks for both employee protection and the regulation of Sunday trading are essential in a civilised society and are in the best interests of responsible employers as well as employees.

Sponsored by:
Lord Bilston (Labour)