Getting rest

Anyone will tell you that life is busy, and it doesn't seem to be getting much easier either. In 2005, 3.6 million of us in the UK regularly worked more than 48 hours a week, and the incidence of long hours working in this country is more than two and half times the average for the EU. It's perhaps not surprising that work-related stress affects more than one in five people and is the cause of more than 13 million lost working days a year. What we need is time to stop and time to rest.

For the sake of our personal health and well-being, everyone needs to have a weekly, regular and shared day off. As a society, we need one day a week when the pace of life slows down and we can rest and enjoy leisure time with our friends and family. For many people, the choice to rest on a Sunday is one they can make for themselves. But for many others, there simply is no choice. Retail, transport, catering staff and everyone else involved in Sunday trading need protection from being forced to work on Sundays. The only real way to guarantee that is for big stores to be shut. That means saying no to extending Sunday trading, and perhaps one day getting the Government to think seriously about whether we need it at all.

Convinced? Sign our petition!