Sunday work & Co. Commerce sector in Europe

Fabrice Warneck

UNI Europa commerce

Commerce in Europe

• 33 million workers in E.U.• Retail and wholesale• Very high competition (SMEs) but low

competion rules• Multinational companies: Carrefour

(500.000), Tesco (500.000), Metro (Makro, Mediamarkt 300 000), IKEA (130.000), H&M (100.000), …

Involuntary part-timeShare of involuntary part-time employees in retail, % of total part-time employees (2007)

Source: Eurostat/ LFSNote: Exception to reference year: LU and SK (2006)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

EU27 NL DK LV LU UK SI MT SK CY EE AT BE CZ ES DE HU LT PL PT FR SE IT FI GR RO BG

%

Eurofound preliminary findings (1) companies with + 10 workers

Are there any employees in your establishment who are regularly required to work...?

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

EL

DE

CY

PT

FR

SK

LU AT IT ES

RO SI

HR

NL

MK

HU

TR FI

LIT

CZ

SE

MT

UK

BE

EE

PL

DK

LV IE BG

Commerce

On Sundays

Yes No

All sectors Year 2007/(Eurofound « working time in the E.U. and other global economies »)

• up to 50% of employees work at least oneSaturday a month • some 25% work at least one Sunday a month• about 25% of employees work on Saturdays but

never on Sundays, • 23% work at least one Saturday and one

Sunday a month. • four times a month : 15% of workers are

usually at the workplace on Saturdays, some 5% report working regularly on Sundays, and 4% usually work on both Saturdays and Sundays.

Year 2007/ (Eurofound « working time in the E.U. and other global economies »)

• In the US, the share of employees who do not work on weekends is higher than in the EU: almost two-thirds of all wage and salary workers only usually work on weekdays.

• In the EU, in hotels and restaurants, where employees who work on Saturdays represent 80% of the total workforce (65% on Sundays), wholesale and retail trade 60% Saturdays (20 % on Sundays), as well as transport and communication, Saturdays is 60% (35% on Sundays respectively).

Why opening longer hours ?

• Late evening opening and Sunday opening of shops = good for consumers ? For the economy ?

• Who takes care of children ? Impact on family life.• What impact on health ? Stress, overload.• What compensation ? Rest, money, none.• What impact on environment ? (air conditioning, light,

refrigiration).• What kind of society do we want ? Leisure or

consumerism ?• What impact on other sectors (childcare, public transport,

cleaning, security, logistics)

Sunday Shop opening in E.U.

• heterogeneous Situations

Open Sunday without restrictions: Czeck Rep., Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden

Weak restrictions: Hongrie, Icelande, Irelande, Luxembourg, Portugal, U.K. (6 hours)

Strong restrictions: small businesses, tourist areas, food shops only, number of days restricted

Open from Monday to Friday 24H / 24 H : Czeck Rep., Estonia, France, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norvay, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, U.K.

European campaign

- Building a European Alliance for work free Sundays

- Trade union movement, churches, SMEs, politicians, …

- Conference 24th March: 400 people at E.P.

- Influencing the working time directive ?

- Sector (de) regulation ?