Belfast City Council and trade union USDAW clash on whether retail workers want Sunday opening
Belfast City Council and a trade union have clashed on the proportion of retail workers who keen to start working on Sundays - after the council voted to trial the measure this summer.
In a vote on Monday night councillors agreed that larger shops across the city will be allowed to open at 11am on 2 and 9 August.
The plan was backed by Sinn Fein, the SDLP the Green Party and Alliance.
It was opposed by the DUP, TUV, UUP and People Before Profit.
The Alliance Party wanted even longer Sunday opening hours but agreed to back the two days.
The proposal had been supported by tourist authorities, who said it would make Belfast more competitive and be better for tourists arriving on cruise ships who are surprised by lack of opening times on Sundays.
However the USDAW (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) says its member were "overwhelmingly" opposed to the idea and would rather be spending time with family and engaging in community, sports and leisure activities or attending church.
USDAW said recently that a survey of over 200 members in the Belfast area found that 82% viewed Sunday opening as negative, with 76% of working parents and carers saying it would negatively impact their family life.
However Belfast City Council said that retail workers were split almost 50:50 on whether they wanted the move - based on a public consultation.
The News Letter asked both the council and USDAW how the surveys came to such contrasting conclusions?
The union said their survey was consistent with previous surveys - but the council said they had a much bigger sample of participants.
A USDAW spokesman told the News Letter: "We’re not sure why there is such a discrepancy on the outcome of the votes, however Usdaw’s results are consistent with previous surveys which show the strength of feeling from retail workers against extending Sunday Trading.
"We have agreements, and significant membership, within a whole range of stores that would be affected by the proposals, including Primark, Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Poundland, so believe our results are representative."
"In terms of last night’s vote, we continue to be disappointed that the issue has again been brought up by the Council, despite numerous reviews in recent years. We do not believe that simply extending the opening hours on a Sunday will put more money in the pockets of consumers or create a noticeable difference store sales."
Previous similar trials, such as those seen in the 2012 Olympics, have shown that these kind of initiatives don’t work, he added.
However the council responded that USDAW surveyed only 220 retail members and that only 109 of them said they worked in Belfast.
By contrast the council survey saw 557 individuals who worked in retail in Belfast respond.
"A total of 269 workers viewed the extension of opening hours on Sunday as positive; and 261 workers viewed it as negative," the council told the News Letter.
The council did confirm, however, that it had no way of verifying if those respondents truly were retail workers as the responses were anonymous.
The council also rejected the USDAW claim that 220 (82%) of their surveyed members in Belfast saw extended Sunday trading as negative – claiming only 109 of them were from Belfast.