Part 7: Sunday Working Schedule 5: Sunday working Employment Rights Act 1996
Paragraphs 1 to 11 of Schedule 5 amend the Employment Rights Act 1996 to provide enhanced rights for shop workers in Great Britain to opt out of Sunday working or to opt out of working more than their normal number of Sunday working hours. The Employment Rights Act 1996 also provides rights for betting workers to opt out of Sunday working: however, Schedule 5 leaves the rights of betting workers unchanged.
	Under section 40 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 a shop worker may, at any time, give their employer an "opting-out notice" to the effect that they object to Sunday working. This right applies to shop workers who are (or may be) required to do shop work on Sundays, except those employed to work only on Sundays. The principal effect of giving an "opting-out notice" is that any contractual requirement to provide or to do shop work on Sunday is made unenforceable once the notice period has elapsed (see section 43 of the Employment Rights Act 1996).
	Paragraph 2 of Schedule 5 changes the length of that notice period. Under the existing legislation, the notice period is three months, beginning on the day on which the shop worker gives a signed and dated opting-out notice to the employer. Paragraph 2 of Schedule 5 changes the notice period for a shop worker at a large shop from three months to one month. "Large shop" is defined essentially to mirror the definition which applies in England and Wales under the Sunday Trading Act 1994, as a shop with a retail floor area of more than 280 square metres (see new section 43ZB of the Employment Rights Act 1996, introduced by paragraph 6 of Schedule 5).
	For a shop worker who only ever works at a smaller shop (that is, with a retail floor area of up to 280 square metres), the notice period remains unchanged at three months.
	The notice period is automatically reduced in certain circumstances, as explained below under "New Section 41D".
	Paragraph 3 of Schedule 5 inserts new sections 41A to 41D into the Employment Rights Act 1996.