Part 7: Sunday Working Schedule 5: Sunday working
The Employment Rights Act 1996 already enables shop workers in Great Britain (with some exceptions) to opt out of working on Sundays, by giving their employer an optingout notice. Schedule 5 amends the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Employment Act 2002 to change the Sunday opt-out rights of shop workers in a number of ways:
It reduces the length of the notice period for which a shop worker at a large shop has to wait after giving their employer an opting-out notice before actually refusing to work on a Sunday, from three months to one month. (The notice period for a shop worker at a smaller shop remains at three months.)
It gives shop workers a new right not to work additional hours on Sundays – that is, more than the shop worker’s normal Sunday working hours – by giving an objection notice to their employer and waiting until the end of a notice period (after which time the opt-out becomes effective). The length of the notice period is one month for shop workers at large shops and three months for shop workers at smaller shops. Schedule 5 provides that the definition of ‘normal Sunday working hours’ will be set out in regulations.
The Employment Rights Act 1996 requires employers of new shop workers who can opt out of working on Sundays to give them an explanatory notice in writing, using text set out in that Act, informing them of their opt-out rights. The Schedule replaces and broadens this requirement, so that explanatory notices cover the right to object to additional hours as well as the right to opt out of working on Sundays altogether. Explanatory notices are to be given to existing Sunday shop workers within two months of commencement of the provisions, as well as to new Sunday shop workers within two months of becoming Sunday shop workers. The form and content of those statements will be set out in regulations.
Schedule 5 provides that, if an employer fails to comply with the requirement to give a written explanatory statement, the notice period that the shop worker can give to exercise either of their rights to opt out will automatically reduce, from one month to seven days at large shops and from three months to one month at smaller shops.
It enables an Employment Tribunal to make a minimum award of two weeks’ pay if a shop worker successfully brings certain other claims in the tribunal, in the course of which the tribunal finds that the employer failed to comply with the requirement to provide the shop worker with an explanatory statement about their Sunday working opt-out rights.
It provides that, if a shop worker is subjected to detriment for exercising (or proposing to exercise) their right to opt-out of working additional Sunday hours, or for refusing (or proposing to refuse) additional hours on Sunday once the notice period has passed, then they will be able to bring a complaint to an Employment Tribunal.
It provides that, if a shop worker is dismissed for exercising (or proposing to exercise) their right to opt out of working additional Sunday hours, or for refusing (or proposing to refuse) to work additional hours on Sunday once the relevant notice period has passed, then they will be regarded as unfairly dismissed.