Maxine Gay: Easter trading? Some things are more important than shopping

AP photo / Seth Wenig

The Easter trading debate is a kind of zombie debate, no matter how many times it's defeated there's always an eager politician who's prepared to resurrect it.

This time it's Workplace Relations Minister Michael Woodhouse who, after voting against Easter trading changes in 2012, is now proposing very similar changes to the ones he voted against.

Why is he switching positions? The easy answer is that he's hoping for a distraction from the absurd health and safety reforms, another answer might be that he's hunting for business votes. But the intention is irrelevant. New Zealanders are only guaranteed three and a half days off each year. That's worth protecting, not reducing.

Under the proposals the decision to allow trading on Easter Sunday will be devolved to local authorities. That means rather than one national debate we're going to get hundreds of different debates across the country.

Where's the certainty for national chains that trade across the country? Where's the certainty for workers who, history shows, will be excluded from determining whether Easter trading is permitted?

The proposals don't solve what the Minister calls the "arbitrary" nature of the law. Instead the government is passing the buck to local authorities who then, on a much smaller scale with diminished expertise, must work with the "arbitrary" laws.

Yet spare a thought for the workers who will lose out if the government rams through its proposals. The Minister is promising workers that under his reforms they will enjoy the right to refuse work on Easter Sunday. This is a hollow promise.

Kiwis who have worked in retail know that refusing work comes with consequences. Not always explicit, it could be as sly as reduced hours week by week. For the thousands of workers on a 90 day trial who refuse to work Easter Sunday, well, they might find that they are let go on day 89.

Working people deserve to be guaranteed some days off. Every worker, whether a shop assistant or a banker, deserves time off for things like family and community. Some things are more important than shopping trips and business profits.

What the government's Easter trading proposal does is take away entitlements. This isn't gentle reform. Just like the tea break law the government is trying to reduce your rights at work. First it was the automatic right to a break, now its reduced holidays.

What comes next?

Maxine Gay is First Union's retail and finance secretary.