Sunday Openings Are Not Endangering Workers’ Rights

As an employee or worker you are protected by several sets of laws. These laws apply regardless of the day of the week. Depending on your jurisdiction they might only allow for 6 days of work per week. And if they do not have such a restriction, then fighting for such a restriction instead of for Sundays closure is more in your interest. There will always be certain facilities that operate on Sundays, think of factories, hospitals and restaurants. If you stand in solidarity with employees and workers in these facilities, you will not ask for general Sunday closures because it would not apply to them anyways. It is not possible to close a hospital on Sundays. Likewise it is not possible to close certain factories, especially those operating blast furnaces, for any day. What benefits all employees and workers are guaranteed rest times both in-between working days and weekly off-days regardless of the day of the week.

Sunday closure on the other hand is an inherently conservative idea. Having stores closed on Sundays leaves working people with only one day to their disposal for both errands and free relaxation (Saturday) - on which they often happen to be too exhausted to even enjoy their free time. Sunday closure advantages those couples where one spouse stays at home and can run errands during the week so Saturday can be enjoyed freely.

Of course, as with all days off work, there needs to be found a balance between the interests of the employer and the interests of the employees and workers. It should not be up to the employer to dictate which day an individual employee has to take off work. This would in fact result in a worse situation than Sunday closure, as friends and family would often have different days off, preventing them from spending time together. It should therefore be first and foremost up to the employee to decide which day of the week will be their off-work day. Only if the wishes of employees collide there should be a method of resolving these conflicts. Possible options are seniority over minority or social reasons (family before single, sick before healthy, old before young). None of these options is perfect, but as long as they are predictable and as long as social protection for workers and employees is not limited, any will be better than general Sunday closures.

Nothing of the above shall be understood to encourage employees to check their work email on their day off. This is not an option up for discussion.