Devolving Sunday trading laws is bad for communities and workers

Protecting workers’ rights and putting power in the hands of communities have been Labour’s most important guiding values throughout our history.

It is Labour councils who have been leading the Tories on the devolution agenda; taking powers that have been held for too long in a far too remote Whitehall.

But while devolution is a Labour agenda, relaxing workers’ rights isn’t.

The Tories have had to shelve their proposals to devolve Sunday trading laws thanks to widespread opposition. But the Chancellor is determined to find another way to bring this proposals back and change the law so that decisions over Sunday trading hours are made by local authorities, and any national protection of workers and families will disappear. This was a proposal made not in the name of devolution but backdoor deregulation.

Their decision to postpone the changes are welcome, but we mustn’t let the Tories bring the changes back at a later date. If they do, Labour will vote to protect workers, communities and small businesses from the Tories’ plans to force through unwanted changes that will destroy what makes Sundays special.

The Chancellor has tried tacking the changes on to various bills going through Parliament.  First it was the Enterprise Bill, then the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill which comes back to the Commons next week.  Now they’ve had to postpone the plan until they can bring them back under English votes for English laws.  It’s easy to see how the Government have got themselves into this mess: the proposals are ill-thought-out and damaging for too many groups in society.

First, it would be bad for employees. USDAW research shows a majority of workers already working in stores with unlimited Sunday opening hours want to work fewer hours not more, while 6 out of 10 workers in large stores are under pressure to work more Sundays. There is no evidence that longer hours would lead to more jobs being created.

Second, it would be bad for communities. The Keep Sunday Special campaign has found that over half of local authorities would deregulate trading hours if they felt pressure to do so from neighbouring authorities. That would mean communities who have no desire to extend trading hours would be forced to rethink if a neighbouring council made a different decision – that is far from the principle of allowing councils to make the right decisions for their area.

Third, it would be bad for small and independent businesses. The current law states that stores which are small in size can open for longer, allowing independent shops to offer a viable choice on the high street. Putting smaller retailers out of business by removing this advantage could reduce competition and lead to the loss of small family businesses which contribute so much to our nation.

The existing laws are an important – and successful – compromise between employees, communities, and businesses. For all their rhetoric, attempts to push through backdoor relaxation of employee rights shows why the Conservatives will never be the party of the workers.

Steve Reed MP is a shadow minister for local government