Sunday working 




Under the Sunday Trading Act 1994, all shop and betting shopworkers can opt out of Sunday working unless Sunday is their only working day, even if they agreed to work on Sundays in their contract, by giving at least three months’ notice.
At the end of the notice period, a shopworker can no longer be required to work Sundays.
Employers must give staff written notice of the opt-out right within two months of starting work, or else staff can opt out by giving just one month’s notice. 




Any shopworker continuously employed by their current employer since before the law changed to permit Sunday trading (24 August 1994, or 4 December 1997 in Northern Ireland) cannot be required to work Sundays, unless Sunday was their only working day. 




Any shopworker can opt back into Sunday working if they want to. They must not be treated unfavourably for opting not to work on Sundays. 


The Sunday Trading Act 1994 also prohibits large shops from opening at all on Easter Sunday or Christmas Day.


These rights extend to England, Wales and Scotland. There are similar rights in Northern Ireland. 


The Enterprise Act 2016 (Part 7 and Schedule 5) contains planned changes to the rules on Sunday working which, if brought into force, will introduce some extra flexibility for some shopworkers. For example, workers in large shops (those with a floor area exceeding 280 square metres) will have to give just one month’s notice (instead of the current three) to opt out of Sunday working. Regulations are needed to bring about these changes, and there is currently no indication as to when they might be enacted. 


Outside the retail and betting sectors, Sunday working depends on the employment contract. There may also be issues of discrimination to consider where working hours and practices clash with the faith needs of some workers for religious observance. See page 241, Chapter 7: Discrimination.


There is no right to extra pay for Sunday working unless the contract says so. In a unionised workplace, enhanced rates for Sunday working may have been negotiated collectively. 


A government attempt to liberalise Sunday trading decisions by devolving them to local authorities was defeated in parliament in March 2016 and appears to have been abandoned.