[ali k]

I have to work every fourth weekend for no extra. When I worked in shops, we didn't get any extra for Sundays,  I'm not saying that everyone should, just worth saying that an awful lot of people work on Sunday anyway

I don’t know enough about the breakdown of which particular shops/businesses pay extra for Sundays. 20yrs ago (the last time I have any direct knowledge from) supermarkets used to - has that now changed?

I understand there are a lot of roles for which weekend working is unavoidable and therefore the norm (healthcare, frontline workers etc). Some of those jobs will have that factored into the higher salaries already (yours maybe? I don’t know) - others (care work?) sadly won’t, but should. In my area - construction related - I know for a fact no trades would get out of bed at the weekend unless they were getting at least time and a half or more often double time. People often work weekends out of choice to make a lot of £££ and all parties benefit.

Anything that potentially further erodes employment protections or leads to more normalisation of weekend work for regular pay (particularly in sectors where it’s for profit and not out of necessity) should be resisted IMO. I don’t know enough about Sunday trading to know if this is the case but my gut tells me it won’t benefit employees.

[Nigel]

I wonder how anyone else feels about the mooted suspension of Sunday trading hours?

I'm with Tomtom - its pure distraction. Would be best ignored, except you can bet your bottom US dollar no employees will benefit.

Matt Hancock this morning expressing that he was "sure" that locking down earlier than March 23rd would not have saved any lives. Didn't have any figures for people who had been tracked and traced so far by our world beating Serco call centre system. Confirmed the "essential" NHSX app is now non-essential. Had no figure for the amount of people tested (as opposed to tests done) - this figure has been "temporarily unavailable" for over 2 weeks now. Thankfully he did confirm that its because the Office for National Statistics are on the case - presumably they are sending crack teams of primary school teachers into Serco and DHSC to teach people how to add up? Although when your track record involves counting gloves individually, and single wet wipes as a piece of PPE it is unfortunately probably necessary. Confirmed that they have met their care home testing target - which was to "deliver" a test for all residents. By deliver he does literally mean deliver i.e. the postman has popped it through the letterbox.

Didn't we hear last week that the PM had now "got a grip" on this - where is he? Too busy with Brexit?

[TobyD]

Sunday trading laws are there to protect employees. Employment protection legislation is notoriously weak in the US. Where people have concerns relates to where this might be going. ...

Hi Jonathan I thought Sunday trading laws were for religious reasons, originally, IE so that people have time to go to church before work at eleven?
Obviously that's not needed for most people now, and most employees will start earlier anyway.
I sympathize with the slippery slope to US working practices, but my guess is that wholesale change is unlikely as our union culture is much stronger.

[TobyD]

Didn't we hear last week that the PM had now "got a grip" on this - where is he? Too busy with Brexit?

Too busy playing tennis according to the Sunday Times! He's fucking useless anyway, he's probably best out of the way. Although if the alternative is Matt Hancock or Cummings....

[TobyD]

I have to work every fourth weekend for no extra. When I worked in shops, we didn't get any extra for Sundays,  I'm not saying that everyone should, just worth saying that an awful lot of people work on Sunday anyway

I understand there are a lot of roles for which weekend working is unavoidable and therefore the norm (healthcare, frontline workers etc). Some of those jobs will have that factored into the higher salaries already (yours maybe? I don’t know) - others (care work?) sadly won’t, but should.....
but my gut tells me it won’t benefit employees.

No, being a physio is well paid compared to care work but it's absolutely shit compared to many healthcare workers. Especially when we're often doing work which we are professionally accountable for with very sick people and demands a huge skillset. I'm not whining though, it's enough, and I chose it!

I think that SDM made a good point above that Sunday trading normal hours spreads people out more, and more of a seven day culture would ease busyness on leisure facilities and entertainment industries etc

[ali k]

No, being a physio is well paid compared to care work but it's absolutely shit compared to many healthcare workers. Especially when we're often doing work which we are professionally accountable for with very sick people and demands a huge skillset. I'm not whining though, it's enough, and I chose it!

I think mentally I separate out those jobs which pay above minimum wage and that you study/train for and go into knowing the working conditions/shift patterns. Like nursing, police, doctors etc. I’m not saying all these are fairly paid for what they do and I’m not saying this mental separation is the right way to see it, but there is potentially some salary weighting already in there for unsociable hours. Again, not arguing at all that a lot of these shouldn’t be paid more! (Or that care workers aren’t skilled workers who have trained for that matter!)

I see the above differently from e.g. shop and care workers who are usually on minimum wage and therefore is clear to see whether they are or aren’t getting additional for unsociable hours. The lowest paid should be the first ones to get extra for weekends/evenings IMO. Not sure if that makes sense?

I think that SDM made a good point above that Sunday trading normal hours spreads people out more

Yes absolutely - temporarily during Covid could be a good thing. Long term I’m not convinced it would be good for employees.
Edit: ...although just thinking more about the spreading out people argument why stop at just shops? Why not schools, offices, workshops, warehouses, to get productivity going 24/7? Slippery slope??

[Wil]

Re: Care Workers. Working for the council I get above the living wage as a base hourly rate, plus shift allowance for late/overnight and weekends, double time on Bank Holidays. No idea if this is replicated in the private sector.

[mrjonathanr]

Sunday trading laws are there to protect employees. Employment protection legislation is notoriously weak in the US. Where people have concerns relates to where this might be going. ...

Hi Jonathan I thought Sunday trading laws were for religious reasons, originally, IE so that people have time to go to church before work at eleven?

Originally yes, but that is what they do now, in effect?
We can add teachers to the list of Sunday workers, most will spend a fair chunk of the day marking and planning. Every night before school is a work night.

[rich d]

Not exactly Covid but on my facebook feed lots of people seem to be using the excuse of Covid and social distancing to take a pop at Black Lives Matter protests, from knowing them and their previous postings it's not exactly a surprise, but does suggest that this may not quite be the metoo C change moment I hoped it might be.

[JohnM]

Yeah I saw a post from an acquaintance on Facebook saying how the government can now not be blamed in the event of a second wave due to the protests.

[spidermonkey09]

Not exactly Covid but on my facebook feed lots of people seem to be using the excuse of Covid and social distancing to take a pop at Black Lives Matter protests, from knowing them and their previous postings it's not exactly a surprise, but does suggest that this may not quite be the metoo C change moment I hoped it might be.

I would think it fairly likely that these acquaintances, if they're anything like those of mine who post similar things, wouldnt be on board with Me Too even now though? There is a section of society who cant be reached on issues of social justice I suspect. What a depressing thought.

[rich d]

Not exactly Covid but on my facebook feed lots of people seem to be using the excuse of Covid and social distancing to take a pop at Black Lives Matter protests, from knowing them and their previous postings it's not exactly a surprise, but does suggest that this may not quite be the metoo C change moment I hoped it might be.

I would think it fairly likely that these acquaintances, if they're anything like those of mine who post similar things, wouldnt be on board with Me Too even now though? There is a section of society who cant be reached on issues of social justice I suspect. What a depressing thought.

yep depressing thought but I think it's a fairly true observation.

[JamieG]

This may have been posted before and is a few years old, but nicely sums up that feeling.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/i-dont-know-how-to-explain-to-you-that-you-should_b_59519811e4b0f078efd98440

[ali k]

...lots of people seem to be using the excuse of Covid and social distancing to take a pop at Black Lives Matter protests...does suggest that this may not quite be the metoo C change moment I hoped it might be.

Not helped by a PM and Home Secretary playing to their base with soundbites about “thuggery” and “mob rule”. Every time I hear Patel speak I just cringe. It’s like she wants to use adult words and phrases she’s heard other people use before but doesn’t know what they mean or how to construct a coherent sentence with them so just sticks them in randomly anyway.

[mrjonathanr]

She does not have the monopoly on that I’m afraid.

[Aussiegav]

I wonder if this will make any impact.

Doubt it. They've clearly decided to ride this one out for better or worse.

We (NHS staff and those in healthcare) are there for the people.These are the values of the NHS and us working in it.

Such a shame that this government does not share the same values. 

[TobyD]

Not exactly Covid but on my facebook feed lots of people seem to be using the excuse of Covid and social distancing to take a pop at Black Lives Matter protests, from knowing them and their previous postings it's not exactly a surprise, but does suggest that this may not quite be the metoo C change moment I hoped it might be.

I've heard a couple of people complain about the protests today, the sorts who usually don't pay any attention to any news whatever. I'm sure that the same people would vehemently deny that they possess any racial prejudice.

[TobyD]

Happened to be listening to the radio when PMQs was on today. Keir Starmer sounded appropriately angry about Johnson's assertion last week that he's proud of the government performance, as well he might; but I thought Starmer sounded calm and professional throughout, whereas Boris Johnson plainly avoided several questions and totally flustered the whole thing, sounding irritable, petulant and as though he actually didn't have a clue on any modicum of details.

As I've said before I'd happily vote for a competent conservative politician, but this man is anything but competent, and this is becoming more and more obvious. Six months ago he was their electoral golden ticket, is he now sliding towards being an electoral liability?

[ali k]

I’m becoming more convinced by the day that Johnson won’t be in post by the next election. I think he’ll be kept there to ride out the worst of the pandemic and ‘get Brexit done’ by 1st Jan then ditched for someone else (Gove or Sunak?) in time for 2024.

PMQs has always been a farce in terms of lack of direct answers. It’s used more to try and get a decent soundbite for the 6 o’clock news as far as I can tell. If you want to see Johnson’s inadequacies properly laid bare I can recommend watching/listening to the recent liaison committee hearing he appeared at. Less opportunity to bluster his way around questions and his lack of knowledge of basic details was shocking. Just one example - he was asked about the case of a couple with ‘no recourse to public funds’ due to their immigration status and his answer showed he didn’t understand his govts own immigration or benefits system. No wonder he’s tried so hard to avoid the committee and why he is so reliant on Cummings.

[tomtom]

Every day another drip of usually meaningless unlockdown news.

Beer gardens, now social bubbles (that actually are very limited), wonder what will be dripped out today to dominate the media news cycle.

[Offwidth]

Scary daily case numbers in Texas.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/usa/texas/

[TobyD]

Every day another drip of usually meaningless unlockdown news.
Beer gardens, now social bubbles (that actually are very limited), wonder what will be dripped out today to dominate the media news cycle.

Although the social bubbles change is massive for me as I live on my own, and it means that I can go to see my parents who I don't think I've seen since Christmas. It's going to be amazing for couples who live in separate places as well.

[Bradders]

It's going to be amazing for couples who live in separate places as well.

Pffft, if the couples who live apart that I know are any sample they've been visiting each other for a long while now, even those who were following the rules strictly at the start...

[ali k]

Every day another drip of usually meaningless unlockdown news....now social bubbles (that actually are very limited), wonder what will be dripped out today to dominate the media news cycle.

What I found most depressing listening to the press conference last night was how this bubble concept was THE announcement Johnson was making, and yet even as he was announcing it he had to look to the scientific advisers to confirm whether or not people could stay overnight. That’s not a trivial detail in this change. So either they hadn’t come up with a policy on overnight stays or Johnson hadn’t read the policy before he did the press conference.

[SA Chris]

My money is on b) not bothered reading.