Public Holiday Trading Rules

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networkn

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#312252 31-Mar-2024 13:51

I feel Easter Trading Rules need to be gone. There should be no obligation either way.

It should be at the sole discretion of the owner of the business, if they want to open, and if they want to charge a surcharge.

It's a consumers choice if they support that business by paying extra, or going elsewhere to a place who doesn't charge a surcharge, or opts to stay home.

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#3212493 31-Mar-2024 14:24

i think thats a terrible idea.

a business would then be forced to open because their opposition is open. therefore the workers have to work and the public holiday ceases to exist. its never a public holiday unless its enforce it to be one. if its a voluntary holiday (as you suggest) then most businesses will never give staff the time off, so its never going to be a holiday.

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#3212494 31-Mar-2024 14:25

Samuel Parnell would like a word with you.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

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#3212498 31-Mar-2024 14:32

tweake:

if its a voluntary holiday (as you suggest) then most businesses will never give staff the time off, so its never going to be a holiday.

That sounds to me like an argument for better resourcing MBIE's Labour directorate and properly enforcing real penalties on businesses that retaliate against employees who invoke their rights.

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#3212500 31-Mar-2024 14:47

networkn:

I feel Easter Trading Rules need to be gone. There should be no obligation either way.

It should be at the sole discretion of the owner of the business, if they want to open, and if they want to charge a surcharge.

It's a consumers choice if they support that business by paying extra, or going elsewhere to a place who doesn't charge a surcharge, or opts to stay home.

I agree that the Easter trading restrictions should be done. We don't have trading restrictions for Ramadan or Passover.

Here is a crazy notion, lets give peace a chance.

MikeFly

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#3212501 31-Mar-2024 14:52

tweake:

i think thats a terrible idea.

a business would then be forced to open because their opposition is open. therefore the workers have to work and the public holiday ceases to exist. its never a public holiday unless its enforce it to be one. if its a voluntary holiday (as you suggest) then most businesses will never give staff the time off, so its never going to be a holiday.

If an employee works on a public holiday they get time and half, plus a paid day off as well.

Rikkitic

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#3212506 31-Mar-2024 15:23

I would vote for it but someone might think I am feeling entitled.

Plesse igmore amd axxept applogies in adbance fir anu typos

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#3212510 31-Mar-2024 15:37

I'm torn on this. On the one hand it's nice to have virtually everyone on holiday at the same time. If it were to be optional I think we'd see a slide into everything being open. And then it would be just Monday to Friday office types who got the public holidays off and it would just be a work day for everyone else (plus time and half or whatever it is)

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#3212515 31-Mar-2024 16:06

networkn:

I feel Easter Trading Rules need to be gone.

Along with Christmas? Not everything of value can be measured in pounds, shillings and pence.

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#3212519 31-Mar-2024 16:11

MikeB4:

networkn:

I feel Easter Trading Rules need to be gone. There should be no obligation either way.

It should be at the sole discretion of the owner of the business, if they want to open, and if they want to charge a surcharge.

It's a consumers choice if they support that business by paying extra, or going elsewhere to a place who doesn't charge a surcharge, or opts to stay home.

I agree that the Easter trading restrictions should be done. We don't have trading restrictions for Ramadan or Passover.

Right. So by that logic, we shouldn’t have a New Year’s holiday because we don’t for Chinese New Year. No ANZAC Day because we don’t commemorate significant military campaigns from WW2, Boer War, Vietnam, Korea, the Musket Wars, etc that NZ has been involved in. No King’s Birthday because we don’t have a day off for the Māori King’s birthday. We celebrate the 40 hour working week, but not Woman’s suffrage so Labour Day is gone as well.

I know none of the above, with the exception of half of ANZAC Day, have trading restrictions but you may as well target Christmas Day as well.

There are two public holidays I haven’t addressed…..

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

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#3212520 31-Mar-2024 16:13

MikeFly:

If an employee works on a public holiday they get time and half, plus a paid day off as well.

if everyone is working during the holidays, then that will disappear pretty quickly as every business will be complaining about the cost for something that doesn't exist.

tweake

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#3212521 31-Mar-2024 16:15

mudguard: I'm torn on this. On the one hand it's nice to have virtually everyone on holiday at the same time. If it were to be optional I think we'd see a slide into everything being open. And then it would be just Monday to Friday office types who got the public holidays off and it would just be a work day for everyone else (plus time and half or whatever it is)

how long before its "we need you in the office" ?

if its optional its a downhill slope.

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#3212522 31-Mar-2024 16:19

roobarb:

networkn:

I feel Easter Trading Rules need to be gone.

Along with Christmas? Not everything of value can be measured in pounds, shillings and pence.

Feeling safe and free from the threat of violence is certainly something of value. According to this, only New Year's Day is worse than Christmas in that regard. People seem to have a blind spot about this. For many, there is nothing warm and fuzzy at all about Christmas and they would probably much prefer working all day somewhere well away from home. Some families are wonderful, some are not. Don't make assumptions about the bad ones just because you get all gooey over the good ones.

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mattwnz

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#3212523 31-Mar-2024 16:24

networkn:

I feel Easter Trading Rules need to be gone. There should be no obligation either way.

It should be at the sole discretion of the owner of the business, if they want to open, and if they want to charge a surcharge.

It's a consumers choice if they support that business by paying extra, or going elsewhere to a place who doesn't charge a surcharge, or opts to stay home.

Do other countries charge a surcharge? If they are going to get rid of these public holidays, then there would then be no reason for a surcharge anyway. I think shops being closed on Friday or Monday maybe overkill these day, but Sunday, one sunday a year, is fine IMO. Imagine if shops were open Xmas day, it would basically spoil the day. Most business however are closed on public holidays, and many take very long weekends over easter, and some extend it into a week or more. So it mainly nly affects retail, and people wanting to use hospitality services during this period. Or people shopping for groceries who don't want to be paying OTT corner shop prices.

mattwnz

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#3212525 31-Mar-2024 16:27

MikeB4:

networkn:

I feel Easter Trading Rules need to be gone. There should be no obligation either way.

It should be at the sole discretion of the owner of the business, if they want to open, and if they want to charge a surcharge.

It's a consumers choice if they support that business by paying extra, or going elsewhere to a place who doesn't charge a surcharge, or opts to stay home.

I agree that the Easter trading restrictions should be done. We don't have trading restrictions for Ramadan or Passover.

This is NZ, where we have 200 + years history of celebrating these particular holidays so it is part of NZs heritage. We celebrate Guy Fawkes too.

Kyanar

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#3212526 31-Mar-2024 16:29

mudguard: I'm torn on this. On the one hand it's nice to have virtually everyone on holiday at the same time. If it were to be optional I think we'd see a slide into everything being open. And then it would be just Monday to Friday office types who got the public holidays off and it would just be a work day for everyone else (plus time and half or whatever it is)

But that's largely how it is now. A huge number of people work in industries where they aren't required to close on public holidays. You may not have a postie on public holidays, but I guarantee you that massive distribution centre is still packed with staff making sure that parcels and letters are still moving. The dairy is still open. The petrol stations are still open. Truck drivers are still moving goods around the country. Trains are still running. Buses are still running. Planes are still flying. People at ASB are still answering the phone if you call them. The list goes on.

The tradeoff is that these people working on these days get time in lieu and penalty rates to compensate them for working that day, with the exception of the truck drivers who are probably "independent contractors" who just plain don't get paid if they take the day off.

The question is why a dairy can choose to open but a supermarket can't - and I expand upon that by stating if a supermarket were to choose to open, it absolutely should be the choice of the employees whether they take a shift on those days, and retaliation for refusing a shift should result in penalties high enough to be an effective deterrent against it. I absolutely oppose any "free for all" that could result in worker exploitation. By that same token, if the business wants to charge a surcharge when they open on that day, so long as it's prominently advised up front, they can have at it - customers can make their own value judgement and choose to patronise the establishment or not.

Where I live there is a single Woolworths that can open on Good Friday and Christmas Day (legally they can open on Anzac Day too, but they do not). And that's the only one within over 500km that can open. The staff there love it, since they get paid triple time on those public holidays. Explains why they resort even more to self-checkouts on that day, heh.

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