Because he was fagged out after six days of non-stop DIY. He had to make the whole universe from scratch, and no power tools in sight.

Well….if they are not in a strong union they would not be paid double, sure. And shopkeepers, as the argument began with them, are probably the least unionised workers in Malta. Who is going to stand for their rights?

Actually, to be more precise, if I recall correctly from my time spent living in London, shops abruptly stop trading at 5 pm. on a Sunday. If you’re at a department store you will hear an announcement asking you to proceed to check out. I also seem to remember that shops open on Sunday mornings for viewing only until noon, that is. Past noon, you can actually buy stuff. Then again I’m not sure if Tesco’s and the supermarkets were an exception and if I used to do my grocery shopping in the morning. .

The supermarkets would also stay open till midnight on weekdays and corner shops would close at 10 pm. The only downside to Sunday shopping is that it makes a great outing and dents your budget. Then again, when I worked in central London, I used to spend my lunch hour walking to Regent and Oxford Street to do my shopping. After office hours it was either Covent Garden or Canary Wharf.

Since moving back to Malta, I haven’t set foot in an actual shop as I shop online. Sunday trading could give the local retail sector a boost as from what I gather online shopping is fast becoming the norm in Malta.

Many workers, including civil servants operating in ‘essential’ services, are no longer paid double rates (or at any other special rate) on Sundays. If one worker’s productive hours are evenly split across all days of the week, such as those working at shifts, then one should not expect extra income just because it happened that his shift included working on a Saturday or a Sunday in some weeks.

Workers in essential services are paid double time on Sunday in most places of work. The idea underlying this is that they are working on a day which society considers as ideally a day of rest and relaxation. So they are given compensation.

[Daphne – Not really, no. They’re not paid double or time-and-a-half unless they are not usually called in on Sunday, or operate on a ‘rotation’ basis. People who always work on Sunday, like journalists who have to produce the Monday edition, are not paid extra. It’s just part of the job.]

When I was in the sixth form, I used to work as a waitress as well. We did get our two days off, which most of the time were during the week. It made sense, as the bulk of our customers came on Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

We were not paid double on a Sunday or on public holidays, but since we got our two days off, it didn’t really matter.

Whilst at university, I worked as a salesgirl in a boutique. One of the outlets was in a shopping complex that opened on Sundays. In this case, we were paid double on Sundays, and we decided whether we wanted to work Sundays or not.

So in this case, it did make sense for the pay to be doubled, as we might have accepted not have our two days off and keep on working seven days a week. Given that I worked full time in the summer months only, it helped me quite a bit, as I never refused a Sunday shift, and at the end of the summer, I had put away enough money to last me for my car insurance and registration, and extra spending money for the rest of the year.

I think it really goes against business that shops close on Sundays, as with people working “normal” weeks (Monday to Friday split shift), our Saturdays are taken up with grocery shoppping and other errands.

Would you prefer it if shops were allowed to open all days of the week as long as employees are paid adequately? Or would you prefer it if, like me, everyone buys clothes over the internet because everywhere in Malta is closed on Sundays?

Yeah, right.

This is actually the solution. Why should shops open only till 7pm? In fact I always wonder how is it that those who claim they are striving for longer working hours in the name of people “who work overtime and who have no time to shop” always attack the fact that shops are closed on Sundays.

They do not mention the 7pm restriction. Extending shopping hours by no means putting an end to the Sunday tradition.