Fenton Darien: Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 Repeal (Easter Sunday Local Choice) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Fenton Darien: Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 Repeal (Easter Sunday Local Choice) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I will be voting against this Shop Trading Hours Act 1990 Repeal (Easter Sunday Local Choice) Amendment Bill. I am proud to be a voice for the 267000 workers in the retail industry who are overwhelmingly opposed to having their guaranteed day off on Easter Sunday taken away. Retail workers have once again had to rally around to fight yet another attempt to take away one of only 3½ days in every year when they can put their families ahead of the firm. Their views are important in this debate because they not Mr McClay and not any of us will have to do the work if this bill passes and those workers are asking this Parliament not to agree that they should have to give up Easter Sunday. 
Working as a shop worker is not an easy life. Most retail workers are low paid and many are on the minimum wage. They can be required to work on any of the 7 days in any week or nights for that matter. They can also be required to work on the weekend and on most public holidays and I note that they get no extra pay for working on the weekend. Their start and finish times can vary enormously—the hours can be different every day—and they are highly casualised. A large percentage of the workers who work in shops are between 15 and 19 years of age. Many are in their first jobs and know little about their rights. This makes retail workers more vulnerable than most workers and with almost no power to negotiate on an individual basis or to stand up against big marketing and lobbying campaigns from business. They have little voice and as I said I am proud to speak for them in this Parliament. 
To suggest that this bill protects workers’ right to choose—and Mr McClay used the word “choice” a lot—whether they work on Easter Sunday shows an ignorance of the reality of the working experiences of many retail workers. The reality is that where a young worker is approached by the employer to work the disapproval and a fear of losing their job would be enough for most workers to agree to work on Easter Sunday. It is very easy for an employer to convey the message that saying no means letting down the firm and one’s workmates or it means that one’s next performance review will not be a good one. Shop workers often know that if they say no then some other poor worker will have to pick up the job on Easter Sunday. 
Easter Sunday is part of the only long weekend left where retail workers can expect the right—the right—to have time off to spend with their whanau to practise their religion if they are Christian as it is an important day in the Christian calendar or just to rest from the demands of their jobs. Shops can trade on 51 out 52 Sundays already—51 out of 52 Sundays—and on every public holiday except Good Friday Christmas Day and the morning of Anzac Day. As I said earlier there are just 3½ days in every year when shop workers know that they will not be expected to work. 
I am somewhat disappointed that we are debating this issue yet again in Parliament when it has already been debated many times as the member said and there have been many many reviews. Actually while I am talking about reviews I must say that the Government which that member is part of is currently conducting a review of the Holidays Act. The issue of Easter shop trading is included in that so if we are talking about people having a say and giving their views then that surely would be the place to do it. I urge the member to put his bill on hold until the results of that inquiry are known so that people know that that process is genuine. 
I have said before that New Zealand’s long and unregulated work hours need to be addressed but this bill only adds to the never-ending demands for work intensification and longer hours. I note that Caritas the Catholic social justice agency which is opposed to this bill has invited Mr McClay to sacrifice some of his Christmas plans to discuss this Easter shop trading bill. I hope that he takes up that invitation because he at least has a choice. If this bill is passed the workers will have no choice. Mr McClay likes to talk about choice so let us see what choice he makes. 
Today we have the chance to mean what we say when we express concern about community and family problems because we know that long working hours and the intensification of work are causing social problems. We have the chance today to put the interests of people and families ahead of the interests of firms and businesses and I think it is time to halt the increasing demand on workers for intensification of their working hours.