Dutch trade unions and religious organisations have joined forces to campaign against Sunday trading.

They launched their campaign on Tuesday in De Banne, a small neighbourhood shopping centre in the north of Amsterdam, where shops are still closed on Sundays – and their owners like to keep it that way.
 

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Until the mid 1990s, all shops in the Netherlands had to remain closed on Sundays, but legislation introduced in 1996 changed all that. Shops were allowed to open 12 Sundays a year, while shops in designated tourist areas could open up all year round.

Not pleased
But not everybody was pleased. Trade unions, small shop owners and religious organisations remained against Sunday trading. They say Sunday shopping harms employees and owners of small shops, as they are more or less forced to open their doors on their one remaining day off.

They also claim the current law is not strict enough, as many city councils label ordinary shopping centres “tourist areas”, allowing those shops to open every Sunday.

Shops are also allowed to be open on public and religious holidays, but in one example, a supermarket in north Amsterdam has taken this rule to the limit. It cites obscure international (and sometimes plain weird) holidays to be allowed to open its doors on Sundays – and it works.

Christian party
The Dutch cabinet decided to review the Sunday trading law and came up with stricter rules, put forward by the Christian Union coalition party. But these are not enough, according to the organisations behind the “Winkelrust” (“Shopping rest”) campaign.

Old fashioned?
 “It may look old fashioned in these days of our 24-hour economy,” says Fedde Monsma of the CNV trade union, “but shops are now open six days a week in the Netherlands. That means hard work and long days for their owners and employees. We think they should have at least one day for family and social activities”.

But Sunday shopping has proven to be successful in the Netherlands, especially with ‘fun shoppers’, and the trade unions don’t want to deny them their weekly shopping trip. “If you’re looking at Amsterdam, shops in the city centre are open on Sundays and if you want to go shopping on Sundays, you can go there”, Mr Monsma says. “But we also have to respect the small shop owners in other areas who are forced to open on Sundays and employees who work there”.

Support
Shop owners in De Banne fully support the campaign. Ed Pham, who owns a shoe shop, says that Sunday trading could be disastrous for small shops like his. “There are already two shops in the area which are open every Sunday. If the current law is relaxed and anyone is allowed to open their doors, we have no option but to sacrifice our one remaining day off. That would be very bad for me, my shop, this shopping centre and probably any shopping centre of this size”.

Other shop owners say doing business on Sundays won’t make them any extra money. “People who go shopping on Sundays go to the large malls”, says Hans Blaauw, who owns a small electronics shop, “they won’t go to small centres like ours. So we’ll just have too few customers on those days”.

Shoppers
Most shoppers in De Banne are either pensioners or non-working parents, who have more opportunities to go shopping on weekdays than people who have full time jobs. Hence their support for the campaign. “I don’t have to go shopping on Sundays,” says an elderly lady in the centre’s flower shop. “Why, I can go shopping any day I like. So why do it on Sundays? Let those people have their day off”.

“Our parents and grandparents have fought long enough to have a few days off,” says another shopper. “Now they want to change all that. I don’t see why. Where can I sign the petition?”.