Many against shops open on Saturdays

Press, 20 June 1980, Page 14

Many against shops open on Saturdays

From front page

Mr Campbell said that •the association would seek talks with the Retailers’ Federation next week to discuss the implications of the proposals and, in particular, its likely effect on award conditions. When the unions affiliated to the Shop Employees’ Association held meetings in February, members voted 98 per cent against the idea of Saturday trading. Mr Campbell said that in . line with the request by members then, more stop-work meetings would be called soon to take the executive’s pro-* posals back to the members lor a decision. “We think the Government will find that it has not got the majority of public support behind it, and certainly not the support of the majority of retailers,” Mr Campbell said. Christchurch already has Saturday shopping on a large scale at New Brighton, and the Canterbury Retailers’ Association recently said that it saw" no need for any change in trading hours. The association’s president (Mr T. A. Gyde) said yesterday that retailers he had approached were still considering the implications of the pronosals and it was too Carly to say whether shops would take advantage of changes in the law. Under existing award provisions, employers must pay. double time for w''" > ——k r ■ 1 days, whether they are fuii-time. .j-ii't-i. ... Mr Campbell said that one of the concerns of the Shop Employees’ Associ-p-’on was that overseas there was a trend to employ school children and casuals on Saturdays, at the expense of full-time adult workers. Mr Bolger hopes to present the bill to the . House in a matter of weeks. It will then go to a select committee before returning to the House for a second and third reading. “It would be a clear objective of mine to pass it h'-'-'re the end of the

session,” Mr Bolger said. He dismissed a suggestion by the Leader of the Opposition, (Mr Rowling) that the Government had simply adopted the “extreme” position on extending shopping hours so that it could retract at a later stage to appear more reasonable. “We opted very con sciously to do what we believe is correct at this stage,” Mr Bolger said. “It is not our proposition that we take a big step now and back off halfway through ' the select committee. Our intention is to change the law as we have indicated.” The secretary of the New Zealand Retailers’ Federation (Mr D. Lonsdale) said the Government had gone much further than. he had anticipated. “The federation’s board of directors at a meeting next Monday and Tuesday will discuss the proposal in depth,” he said. “The federation at its conference in March referred the question of extended trading. hours back to the association for study.” In Auckland, the Progressive Retailers’ Association co-ordinator (Mr M. Dow) was jubilant after the announcement, and it was also welcomed by the Queen Street Business Association. But Mr Rowling told journalists at Parliament that Queen Street businessmen might be in for a shock, because the public would probably shop in the suburbs.