Since the passing of the provisions of the Shop Trading Hours Employers can no longer compel their shop employees to work on Easter Sunday or treat them adversely for refusing to work. A provision in an employment agreement which requires a shop employee to work on Easter Sunday is unenforceable.
Compelling an employee to work includes:
- The employer making working on an Easter Sunday a condition of the continuing employment of an employee.
- The employer using unfair influence on the shop employee to try to convince them to work on an Easter Sunday.
- The employer requiring an employee to work on Easter Sunday without giving them the correct notice of the right to refuse.
All shop employees have the right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday and they don’t have to give their employer a reason for refusing. This applies to all shop employees, eg:
- Working in shops in an area where a local policy is created
- Working in garden centres
- Working in shops that have criteria that exempt them from shopping restrictions, such as dairies and petrol stations
- Doing ‘non-trading’ work, such as shelf-stacking or stocktaking, on Easter Sunday in or from a shop (in areas with or without local policies or exemptions).
Employers who want a shop employee to work on Easter Sunday and shop employees who don’t want to work on Easter Sunday have specific responsibilities to each other and need to follow the required process.
If an employer wants employees to work on Easter Sunday, they must follow a specific process to let their employees know (in writing) that they have a right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday. This process must be completed each year an employer wants an employee to work on Easter Sunday and can’t just be written into the employment agreement.
If an employer can’t open their shop on Easter Sunday (due to their territorial authority not having a local policy, ability to open with conditions or existing area exemption) but still wants shop employees to work, (eg to stack shelves or do stock taking), they must still follow the same process. This is because the law change gives all shop employees the right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday.
Employers must:
- Notify the employees in writing that they have a right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday.
- Deliver the notice to the employee. This could be in the form of a letter or memo delivered in person, or by email or via group email or in a way that is specified in the employment agreement. This must be done at least four weeks before the relevant Easter Sunday, but no earlier than eight weeks before the Easter Sunday. If an employee has started work within four weeks of the relevant Easter Sunday the employer must give this notice (of the right to refuse) as close to the start date of the employee’s employment as possible.
If an employer doesn’t follow the notice requirements and requires an employee to work on Easter Sunday, this is considered to be compelling them to work and the employee could bring a personal grievance.
Shop employees who are given notice of their right to refuse to work on Easter Sunday and want to refuse to work, must give notice of this to their employer.
If an employee is going to refuse work on Easter Sunday they must:
- let the employer know in writing no later than 14 days from the date they received their employer’s notice.
- deliver the notice to the employer. This could be in the form of a letter or memo delivered in person, or by email or in a way that is specified in the employment agreement.
If the employee doesn’t follow these notice requirements, and their employment agreement has a clause stating that they can be required to work on Easter Sunday, their employer can require them to work.