Working on a Sunday.

Curryman

Curryman

Well-known member
A lot of nonsense is churned out by one and all about Sunday working. Certain businesses have to work on a Sunday, such as Hotels, Pubs, Hospitals, Policemen, Supermarket employees and so on. All in one way or another could be classed as service industries.

Sunday is no longer a sacrosanct Day of Rest for most people in this country, who probably do not attend church, but consider themselves Christian, those of other religions who attend a Mosque on a Friday, a synagogue on a Saturday and so on, so why do Unions consider Sundays to be different to any other day of the week?

We are supposed to be in a modern world, not the Victorian era where everyone paraded in their Sunday best through the park or promenaded along the sea front and down the pier before attending Church to hear a vicar or priest preach their fire and brimstone message.

In my mind it's now an outdated precept or expectation , particularly in a service industry, to have Sunday as a day of rest and therefore expect extra cash for working it. Sunday has become, just another day.

Double time, mmm, would those shouting about not working be willing to pay double for their food or drink in a hostelry, for their Food in a Supermarket or for their taxi journey back from the pub?

On this note, I will go for my daily shower, before going out to pick up the Christmas Roast and the final bits of shopping we need before Christmas day.

I hope replies to this post will be reasonable and thought through, but I've been wrong before and will no doubt be vilified for my audacity in suggesting such a thing.

Play nicely.
 
I imagine most people work Monday to Friday? Weekends are the only time they can spend time with their families. The kids are at school for the rest of the week after all.

If they’re asked to give up any of that time then I think it’s fair that’s recognised financially.
 
Curryman said:
A lot of nonsense is churned out by one and all about Sunday working. Certain businesses have to work on a Sunday, such as Hotels, Pubs, Hospitals, Policemen, Supermarket employees and so on. All in one way or another could be classed as service industries.

Sunday is no longer a sacrosanct Day of Rest for most people in this country, who probably do not attend church, but consider themselves Christian, those of other religions who attend a Mosque on a Friday, a synagogue on a Saturday and so on, so why do Unions consider Sundays to be different to any other day of the week?

We are supposed to be in a modern world, not the Victorian era where everyone paraded in their Sunday best through the park or promenaded along the sea front and down the pier before attending Church to hear a vicar or priest preach their fire and brimstone message.

In my mind it's now an outdated precept or expectation , particularly in a service industry, to have Sunday as a day of rest and therefore expect extra cash for working it. Sunday has become, just another day.

Double time, mmm, would those shouting about not working be willing to pay double for their food or drink in a hostelry, for their Food in a Supermarket or for their taxi journey back from the pub?

On this note, I will go for my daily shower, before going out to pick up the Christmas Roast and the final bits of shopping we need before Christmas day.

I hope replies to this post will be reasonable and thought through, but I've been wrong before and will no doubt be vilified for my audacity in suggesting such a thing.

Play nicely.
Click to expand...
Tend to agree with those sentiments, though taxis do tend to have a sunday rate, and a saturday rate for that matter. my only point with the normalisation of weekend work is the impact it has on people with kids.

My personal point of view is that we should be fulfilling the promises that technology held for us in the early seventies of shorter working, and I would say a civilised society sould be heading to a standard 4 day 30-32 hour week, but as a concession weekends hold the same status as week days. The issue is the impact on costs to particularly retail service businesses - but - it was these service businesses who lobbied for changes in the law to open late into the evening and to be open all through the weekend which meant additional staffing - or longer hours for staff but customer numbers havent really increased, hence impact on profits and particularly impact on small family businesses, who cant afford to open all hours.

In order for it to happen you would have to have a massive corporate culture change, and genuine competence in government AND massive change in the markets, as profit and associated dividends and share prices would HAVE to become more aligned to corporate performance, in many respects the UK would have to shift back from a what is now a majority rentier economy to one that is productivity based again.

NB. Finland has been experimenting with a shorter working week in several regions, 4 days 32 hours in parts of the country and the first indications are that productivity is higher, and i think that Helsinki has made public transport within the city free.
 
Another hard fought for concession won by unions being eroded. Work 7 days a week until you die.
 
Curryman said:
A lot of nonsense is churned out by one and all about Sunday working. Certain businesses have to work on a Sunday, such as Hotels, Pubs, Hospitals, Policemen, Supermarket employees and so on. All in one way or another could be classed as service industries.

Sunday is no longer a sacrosanct Day of Rest for most people in this country, who probably do not attend church, but consider themselves Christian, those of other religions who attend a Mosque on a Friday, a synagogue on a Saturday and so on, so why do Unions consider Sundays to be different to any other day of the week?

We are supposed to be in a modern world, not the Victorian era where everyone paraded in their Sunday best through the park or promenaded along the sea front and down the pier before attending Church to hear a vicar or priest preach their fire and brimstone message.

In my mind it's now an outdated precept or expectation , particularly in a service industry, to have Sunday as a day of rest and therefore expect extra cash for working it. Sunday has become, just another day.

Double time, mmm, would those shouting about not working be willing to pay double for their food or drink in a hostelry, for their Food in a Supermarket or for their taxi journey back from the pub?

On this note, I will go for my daily shower, before going out to pick up the Christmas Roast and the final bits of shopping we need before Christmas day.

I hope replies to this post will be reasonable and thought through, but I've been wrong before and will no doubt be vilified for my audacity in suggesting such a thing.

Play nicely.
Click to expand...
You are quite right Curryman, we do live in a modern world and not the Victorian era when ordinary working people were killed fighting for the vote and bullied and harassed for forming trade unions. Alas, there are those who would have us go back to the Victorian values of deregulation, unsafe working conditions and the abolition of worker representation.
 
I quite agree with you 1966, and on the other side of the coin, there are those who will not accept that we should modernise.
 
Mexboroseasider said:
I imagine most people work Monday to Friday? Weekends are the only time they can spend time with their families. The kids are at school for the rest of the week after all.

If they’re asked to give up any of that time then I think it’s fair that’s recognised financially.
Click to expand...
Tell that to the millions who work in hospitality, shops, petrol stations, police, firemen care homes, the NHS etc. I guess the o/p is talking about rail workers and as an essential service they should work 7 days. Most in the industries I mentioned will be off probably one in four weekends, not ideal, but that’s how it is.
 
Matesrates said:
Tell that to the millions who work in hospitality, shops, petrol stations, police, firemen care homes, the NHS etc. I guess the o/p is talking about rail workers and as an essential service they should work 7 days. Most in the industries I mentioned will be off probably one in four weekends, not ideal, but that’s how it is.
Click to expand...
I suppose one question is what does “society” value the most? Family life or “the needs of the economy”?
 
Mexboroseasider said:
I suppose one question is what does “society” value the most? Family life or “the needs of the economy”?
Click to expand...
That’s a personal choice I guess, if you want weekends free, look for jobs that give you that. I just don’t see why rail workers should be treated any differently to bus and tram employees who provide an essential service.
 
For the last 30 years of my employment before I retired I worked 3, 12 hours shifts a week.
Those shifts consisted of either Sunday, Monday, Tuesday days.
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday days or
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday nights. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights.

These shifts would be done in blocks of 4 weeks.
 
We worked 3 out 4 Sundays at Luton Airport.
However it was 'Double Time;, Saturdays time and a half.
Our boss was a Senior Executive Officer who normal hours.
He was 2 grades above us, but we got paid more than him. 😄
You just get used to working shifts, although it wasn't good for ones wife/partner.
 
It all depends on the contract you signed up to doesn’t it.
Going forward, and recently, contracts have probably modernised to suit the employer with regards weekend working and as you say in hospitality it’s always been the norm.

I’m not a practising Christian as such, but I value my weekends and wouldn’t work them for flat rate. Don’t work them at all now as time is precious to me.
 
Lala said:
It all depends on the contract you signed up to doesn’t it.
Going forward, and recently, contracts have probably modernised to suit the employer with regards weekend working and as you say in hospitality it’s always been the norm.

I’m not a practising Christian as such, but I value my weekends and wouldn’t work them for flat rate. Don’t work them at all now as time is precious to me.
Click to expand...
I agree except that I’m not sure I agree with the word “modernised”. I’d say not paying people extra for working at a weekend is a retrograde step.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top