Keep Sunday Special is a British campaign group set up in 1985 by Dr. Michael Schluter CBE [1] to oppose plans to introduce Sunday trading in England and Wales (there are different arrangements in Scotland and Northern Ireland). The Keep Sunday Special campaign was set up and is run as a conventional secular civil society organisation with support from trade unions, churches, political parties, private businesses, and members of all faiths and of none. It has no connection to the Lord's Day Observance Society.
From 1912 to 1938 a series of acts regarding trading were passed into UK law, including that which regulated shops on Sundays, which were later consolidated in the Shops Act 1950. This act was then repealed by the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994, bringing an end to the prohibition of Sunday trade in England and Wales. Under the Sunday Trading Act 1994, large shops are allowed to open for up to six hours on Sundays between 10am and 6pm. The UK Department of Trade and Industry conducted a review of the Act in early 2006 to consider whether to extend opening hours to nine hours or to remove restrictions entirely.
Keep Sunday Special was founded on the idea that such moves by the government would have a damaging effect on families, communities and local economies. An Early Day Motion was signed by nearly 300 MPs. [2] On 6 July 2006, the then Trade and Industry Secretary, Alistair Darling, confirmed that, having considered all the evidence from the review, the Government concluded there should be no change to the Sunday trading laws. [3] The news was welcomed by trade unions and small shops who were afraid large stores would undercut their prices and were opposed to any change in the law.
Labour laws, labour code or employment laws are those that mediate the relationship between workers, employing entities, trade unions, and the government. Collective labour law relates to the tripartite relationship between employee, employer, and union.
Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a result of new trends in economic thinking about the inefficiencies of government regulation, and the risk that regulatory agencies would be controlled by the regulated industry to its benefit, and thereby hurt consumers and the wider economy. Economic regulations were promoted during the Gilded Age, in which progressive reforms were claimed as necessary to limit externalities like corporate abuse, unsafe child labor, monopolization, pollution, and to mitigate boom and bust cycles. Around the late 1970s, such reforms were deemed burdensome on economic growth and many politicians espousing neoliberalism started promoting deregulation.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions and eight trades and labour councils. The ACTU is a member of the International Trade Union Confederation.
Sunday shopping or Sunday trading refers to the ability of retailers to operate stores on Sunday, a day that Christian tradition typically recognises as a day of rest. Rules governing shopping hours, such as Sunday shopping, vary around the world but many countries and subnational jurisdictions continue to ban or restrict Sunday shopping, such as Poland. In the United States, rules are enshrined within Blue laws.
The Sunday Trading Act 1994 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom governing the right of shops in England and Wales to trade on a Sunday. Buying and selling on Sunday had previously been illegal, with exceptions, under the Shops Act 1950.
The Australian labour movement began in the early 19th century and since the late 19th century has included industrial and political wings. Trade unions in Australia may be organised on the basis of craft unionism, general unionism, or industrial unionism. Almost all unions in Australia are affiliated with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), many of which have undergone a significant process of amalgamations, especially in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The leadership and membership of unions hold and have at other times held a wide range of political views, including socialist, democratic and right-wing views.
The alcohol licensing laws of the United Kingdom regulate the sale and consumption of alcohol, with separate legislation for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland being passed, as necessary, by the UK parliament, the Senedd in Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the Scottish Parliament respectively.
The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays, or workweek, is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most of the world, the workweek is from Monday to Friday and the weekend is Saturday and Sunday. A weekday or workday is any day of the working week. Other institutions often follow this pattern, such as places of education. The constituted weekend has varying definitions, based on determined calendar days, designated period of time, and/or regional definition of the working week. Sometimes the term "weekend" is expanded to include the time after work hours on the last workday of the week.
During British Summer Time (BST), civil time in the United Kingdom is advanced one hour forward of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), in effect changing the time zone from UTC±00:00 to UTC+01:00, so that mornings have one hour less daylight, and evenings one hour more.
Union busting is a range of activities undertaken to disrupt or weaken the power of trade unions or their attempts to grow their membership in a workplace.
The Christmas Day (Trading) Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It prevents shops over 280 m2/3,000 sq ft from opening on Christmas Day in England and Wales. Shops smaller than the limit are not affected.
The Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The aim of the Act was to close an anomaly in employment law in the United Kingdom, whereby shopworkers in England and Wales had the legal right to refuse to work on a Sunday, when shopworkers in Scotland did not enjoy this right.
SWALEC was an electricity supply and distribution company in South Wales, established in 1989 following the de-regulation of the electricity supply industry in the United Kingdom. The business has seen several changes of ownership from 1996, and the SWALEC brand has been used for retail gas supply as well as electricity. Today Western Power Distribution runs the distribution network business, and SWALEC Contracting is a trading name of OVO Energy.
Banking in the United Kingdom can be considered to have started in the Kingdom of England in the 17th century. The first activity in what later came to be known as banking was by goldsmiths who, after the dissolution of English monasteries by Henry VIII, began to accumulate significant stocks of gold.
The Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 is an Act of Parliament. It introduced wide-ranging measures with aims including reducing burdern on people in trade created by previous Acts such as the Shops Act 1950, changes in transport legislation, changes in utility legislation, changes in financial services among others.
The Jubilee Centre is a Christian social reform think tank based in the United Kingdom which conducts research into the contemporary relevance of the biblical vision for society.
Cambridge Papers has maintained a consistently high standard of Christian reflection on contemporary issues.
The Shops Bill 1986 was a parliamentary bill in the United Kingdom that would have ended government regulation of Sunday shopping in England and Wales. Introduced by the Government of Margaret Thatcher, it was defeated in the House of Commons at its second reading; this is the most recent occasion at which a government bill has fallen at that stage.
The Shops Act 1950 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which was repealed on 1 December 1994 by the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994. The introductory text describes it as "An Act to consolidate the Shops Acts, 1912 to 1938, and certain other enactments relating to shops.".
In New Zealand, a dairy is a small owner-operated convenience shop licensed to sell groceries, milk, eggs, dairy products, perishables, newspapers and other staples during and after normal trading hours.
George Willoughby Moke Norrie, 2nd Baron Norrie is a British peer and environmentalist. He piloted important legislation on national parks and statutory swimming to promote water safety for school age children. He has a long track record as a champion of the environmental voluntary sector.