REGARDING Colin Jeffrey's letter (December 27), I work in the retail industry and I, along with many of my fellow workers, have no desire to work on Christmas Day.
The run-up to Christmas is stressful enough.
I wholeheartedly back Bill Connor's call to try and stop the big retailers from forcing their workers to put in an appearance during the Christmas holidays (December 29).
Right now there are no means available to stop shop workers being forced to work on Christmas Day, unless it falls on a Sunday.
Christmas and the New Year period is the busiest of the year and shopworkers deserve at least one day of rest during that time.
I hope the Government will introduce a statutory protection of Christmas day, which will prevent shops of more than 280 square metres from opening.
I am not religious but I do not wish to work on Christmas Day. Just think, Mr Jeffrey, the extra amount of stress put on families if one of them has to work.
I am sure we would see the divorce rate rocket! I think it is you who are archaic, and you ought to come out of the 19th century and into the 21st.
Colin Henson,
Moorcroft Road,
York.
...WHILE I agree with Colin Jeffrey that some Bank Holidays have outlived their usefulness, now that most of us enjoy long periods away from work, I would hate to see the "proper" holidays, such as Christmas and Boxing Day, Good Friday and Easter Sunday deleted from the working calendar.
Why could there not be a compromise, in that the August Bank Holiday, the two in May and any others that may be strewn across the year could be edged out, leaving workers to decide when they could take these extra days as part of their normal holiday allowance?
As far as New Year's Day is concerned, the reason for that being declared a holiday is surely because so many workers were badly incapacitated because of over-indulgence during the celebrations that they were unable to do a decent day's work in any case.
A sad reflection on our celebratory habits but, nevertheless, from the employers' point of view, a very valid excuse to declare it a national holiday.
Heather Causnett,
Escrick Park Gardens,
Escrick, York.
Updated: 10:41 Wednesday, January 02, 2002
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