NSW to allow shops to open on Boxing Day

IF YOU can’t wait for the sales, or just want a break from the family, you’ll now be able to shop up a storm on Boxing Day. But critics aren’t impressed

Strip Shop Shopping Crowds

SHOPAHOLICS will be able to head to the sales a day earlier in NSW, with MPs passing legislation this morning to allow stores across the state to open on Boxing Day.

But critics said protections in the new laws that allowed employees to refuse to work on the public holiday would do little to help retail assistants who could not afford to turn down bosses.

The state’s upper house narrowly passed a bill in the early hours of Wednesday allowing retailers across the state to open on December 26, as long as staff freely elect to work.

Currently only stores in a small number of locations, such as Sydney’s CBD and Bondi Junction, can open their doors on Boxing Day.

The government says the Retail Trading Amendment Bill, which now needs only pass the coalition-controlled lower house, will offer a level playing field for retailers and shoppers.

“It’s unfair that the residents of Sydney’s eastern suburbs have been able to access Boxing Day sales while people in western Sydney have not,” Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian said.

“It’s also unfair that people in Wollongong, Newcastle and many parts of regional NSW have been missing out on shopping close to home.” Influential crossbench MP Reverend Fred Nile helped push the bill through the upper house despite significant lobbying from unions and religious groups.

Late on Tuesday night he successfully moved amendments that impose tough fines on retailers who compel staff members to work on Boxing Day — up to $11,000 per worker.

But Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association NSW Secretary Bernie Smith said people in insecure work, and even small retailers, will not have a genuine choice.

“What’s written on paper as a protection about voluntary work is very different from what happens on the shop floor,” Mr Smith said. “And just like retail workers who technically have a right not to work, small businesses inside Westfield will have a right not to trade. But most of those people report to us they’re very concerned what happens when their lease is up next time.” He believed shops would open their doors even if they did not expect to make extra sales.

“Thousands and thousands of retail workers will miss out on family gatherings to deal with the returns of people’s unwanted Christmas presents from the day before,” Mr Smith said.

Christine Graham, who works at Coles in Sydney’s west, said she already struggled to set aside family time with her daughter, who also works in retail.

“Just having those two days with my daughter is very special, because we both work, we don’t get a lot of time together — and now it’s been cut in half,” she said.

Westfield has been contacted for comment.