It's a strange old world. The Union movement appears to be doing more to defend the sanctity of Easter Sunday than the Christian churches.
Thanks entirely to a trade union submission, a NSW Government options paper released on Tuesday suggests that Easter Sunday should be named a public holiday under special legislation that would give NSW workers the right to refuse to work on that day.
Background
In June, the Minister for Industrial Relations, John Hatzistergos established a review of the Banks and Bank Holidays Act 1912 in order to modernise laws around the operation of public holidays and bank holidays in New South Wales.
The review is being undertaken by Professor Joellen Riley from University of Sydney Law School.
Reflecting on the fall-out from the WorkChoices debate, Professor Riley says that “State laws prescribing public holidays and making arrangements for additional or substitute days” are now “highly influential” in defining the work rights of employees.
The case for Easter Sunday
I have long believed that a nexus between increased female workplace participation - especially in retail - and Sunday trading is contributing to the decline in regular church-going.
While committed long-time Christians will tend to organise their working lives around church first, anecdotally I know of situations where 'fringe' church members have given up because their Sunday work rostering makes it too hard. It's the case of the mum who stops dropping her kids at Sunday School because she is rostered on to work at the local shopping centre.
Anything that helps keep certain days free for communal worship is helpful in my view.
So just as the RSL is actively defending the 'sanctity' of Anzac Day, you'd think the churches would have an interest in seeing Christmas and Easter protected as holy-days.
The list of submissions included Unions NSW, the RSL, the Australian Industry Group, the Australasian Retailers Association and a raft of other employer groups.
But was there any word from any of the churches? Nothing.
Yet, Professor Riley admits she has found the SDA (that's the shop workers union not of course the Seventh Day Adventist church!) case that Easter Sunday should be a public holiday compelling.
Basically the old act hasn't caught up with implications of Sunday trading, which has created an anomaly at Easter. Easter Sunday is a restricted trading day but workers have no protection if they refuse to work.
A special case needs to be made for Easter Sunday, because it is presently not named as a public holiday in any State or Territory public holidays legislation. Easter Sunday is, however, named as a "restricted trading day" in the Shop Trading Act 2008 (NSW). Although not specifically named as a public holiday in either the Fair Work Act (or the Workplace Relations Act 1996) or the BBH Act, this is because all Sundays were traditionally holidays, before the extensive liberalisation of trading and working hours in recent decades. Many of the State public holiday Acts were also passed in times before the liberalisation of Sunday trading. Given contemporary working patterns in many industries, it is appropriate that this particular Sunday be named as a public holiday, now that many Sundays have become ordinary working days. The submission by the SDA p.13-14 makes a persuasive case for naming a day already named as a restricted trading day as a public holiday. It is anomalous that a shop employee whose employer has a special exemption from the restrictions of the Shop Trading Act to trade on Easter Sunday should be requested to work without receiving any public holiday penalty rates on that day. By declaring Easter Sunday as a public holiday, the State legislation would ensure that employees requested to work on Easter Sunday would have the same protections as those required to work on Easter Saturday or Easter Monday. The principal protection provided by the Fair Work Act is a right to reasonably refuse to work on that day. Any right to penalty rates for work on that day would be a matter for industrial negotiation.
The fight for Easter Sunday isn’t over. As Kirsty Needham, the Sydney Morning Herald's Workplace Reporter reports, business groups are expected to resist the suggestion Easter Sunday should be named a public holiday.
But don't fear. There is still a chance to have your say. The next step in the process is outlined in this week's press release from NSW Minister for Industrial Relations, John Hatzistergos:
Professor Riley will be consulting key stakeholders between 17 and 26 August.
The final report will recommend practical changes to modernise legislation and other instruments affecting the creation and operation of public and bank holidays in NSW.The options paper and further information about the review are available at [url=http://www.industrialrelations.nsw.gov.au]http://www.industrialrelations.nsw.gov.au[/url]
Written submissions can be emailed to review@oir.commerce.nsw.gov.au and must be lodged by Friday, 11 September 2009. A final report will be submitted to the NSW Government for consideration in October 2009.
