A right for everyone

A work-free Sunday and appropriate working hours for citizens throughout Europe are being requested by a group of trades unions and organizations of civil society and religious communities gathered together to form of European Sunday Alliance (ESA), of which Europe’s leading church organizations, COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community) and CEC (Conference of European Churches), also form part. A conference of experts on the question was held in Brussels on 20 June, during which the founding charter for the “creation of a European alliance for the protection of Sunday” was officially presented. In the framework of the revision of the Commission’s directive of working hours, the Alliance is aimed at showing the “value added” of free time, not only as a “cultural aspect” but also as an “important factor in the construction of social Europe”. According to Luca Jahier, chairman of Group III (Civil Society) of the European Economic and Social Committee, “Europe needs a model of social life based not only on production and consumption but also on shared free time for relationships and involvement in social work”.The founding charter. “We signatories believe that all citizens of the European Union have a right to benefit from appropriate working hours which in principle exclude work in the late evening, at night, during public holidays and Sundays”. With this affirmation opens the founding charter of the European Sunday Alliance ESA. What is especially of concern to associations and trades unions is that those who generally work on Sundays and who work at irregular hours do so “out of financial necessity rather than for choice” and that these conditions “are the main source of the growing phenomenon of poor workers in Europe”. In their charter, the ESA urges “European Institutions to protect Sunday, in principle, as a common day of weekly rest in the EU” and “to ensure in a more effective way that EU legislation and the regulations of the internal market provide a central role for health and safety, the proper balance between work and private life, and social cohesion”. The opinion of European bishops. The bishops of the European Union have also given their support to the European Sunday Alliance and join with the network of associations and trades unions in requesting that reference to the particular character of Sunday as a day of rest be re-instated in the new directive on working hours of the European Commission. Father Piotr Mazurkiewicz, general secretary of COMECE, has explained to SIR Europe the reasons for the participation of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community in the conference of experts held in Brussels to promote a work-free Sunday. “It’s an initiative – explains Father Mazurkiewicz – that starts out from civil society and is shared by trades unions, associations, and cooperatives of entrepreneurs. The protection of Sunday is an important issue both for workers and for entrepreneurs because there’s a very strong pressure from big business and supermarkets for freedom to work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week”. “Sunday as a day of rest – continues the COMECE secretary – was introduced in antiquity for religious reasons, but today it forms part of the European heritage and it is important not only for Christians but for everyone. That’s why we don’t make reference to religion, but base our vindication of Sunday as a day of rest on reasons that regard safety at work, social cohesion, family life and relations in society”. A directive in defence of workers. During the conference in Brussels, continues Father Mazurkiewicz, “the findings of scientific research were also presented that attest that the increase of working hours even until late at night and work on Sunday are among the causes of accidents on the workplace”. “As representatives of the bishops in Europe – stresses the COMECE secretary -, we too wish to underline this particular character of Sunday as a time of rest and to support those associations and trades unions that have taken this initiative”. The issue of working hours is not anything new for the European Union: in a past directive reference was made to Sunday [as a day of rest], but it was eliminated by the European Court of Justice because, in its view, it lacked justification. “Now – says Father Mazurkiewicz – the European Commission is working on the draft of a new directive. We wish that the reference to the particular character of Sunday as a work-free day be recovered in this new directive”. “The power of the Union – admits the COMECE representative – is very limited in this sphere since the EU cannot compel member states”. That’s why, in their founding charter, associations and trades unions urge the governments of member states to “shoulder their own responsibilities to improve, implement and apply existing laws and practices and respect collective accords”.