Last updated on November 21, 2023

The rules surrounding Sunday working are not exactly straight forward.

If employees have to work on Sundays, depends largely on their contract i.e if the contract states that Sunday is a working day then…Sunday is a working day.

However, for employees that have been around their workplace for a while they may have the right to not work on Sundays.

For example, shop workers in England and Wales that have been employed since before August 1994 have protected Sunday working status.  Protected means that they can literally tell their employer, “Sundays are not for me, sorry. I’m not working them,” and there’s not a lot the employer can do.

Workers in betting shops since before January 1995 are also afforded the same rights, though they can choose to work if they wish.

The worker can decide to opt out of Sunday working at any time and have the backing of legislative protection so that any discriminative behaviour from the employer would automatically be deemed unfair by an employment tribunal.

Unprotected workers can also request not to work on Sundays, unless they are specifically employed to work on Sundays.  Workers can write to their employer stating that they no longer wish to work on Sundays.

In Great Britain, employers must advise their workers in writing that they have the right to opt out of working Sundays within two months of the person starting work. 

Larger shop workers must give one month’s notice of their intention to stop working Sundays and in smaller shops it would be three months.

If the employer has not written to employees with the right to opt out then the notice periods are reduced seven days and one month respectively.

You can check out the full article HERE

You can also read up more on Sunday working HERE

 

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