The Shops (Sunday Trading &c.) (Northern Ireland) Order 1997

Explanatory statementN.I.

8.—(1) Where a person becomes a shop worker to whom paragraph 6 applies, his employer shall, before the end of the period of two months beginning with the day on which that person becomes such a worker, give him a written statement in the prescribed form.N.I.

(2) If—

(a)an employer fails to comply with sub-paragraph (1) in relation to any shop worker; and

(b)the shop worker, on giving the employer an opting-out notice, becomes an opted-out shop worker,

paragraph 7(3) has effect in relation to the shop worker with the substitution for “three months” of “one month”.

(3) An employer shall not be regarded as failing to comply with sub-paragraph (1) in any case where, before the end of the period referred to in that sub-paragraph, the shop worker has given him an opting-out notice.

(4) Subject to sub-paragraph (5), the prescribed form is as follows—

“STATUTORY RIGHTS IN RELATION TO SUNDAY SHOP WORK

You have become employed as a shop worker and are or can be required under your contract of employment to do the Sunday work your contract provides for.

However, if you wish, you can give a notice, as described in the next paragraph, to your employer and you will then have the right not to work in or about a shop on any Sunday on which the shop is open once three months have passed from the date on which you gave the notice.

Your notice must—

• be in writing;

• be signed and dated by you;

• say that you object to Sunday working.

For three months after you give the notice, your employer can still require you to do all the Sunday work your contract provides for. After the three month period has ended, you have the right to complain to an industrial tribunal if, because of your refusal to work on Sundays on which the shop is open, your employer—

• dismisses you, or

• does something else detrimental to you, for example, failing to promote you.

Once you have the rights described, you can surrender them only by giving your employer a further notice, signed and dated by you, saying that you wish to work on Sunday or that you do not object to Sunday working and then agreeing with your employer to work on Sundays or on a particular Sunday.”

(5) The Department of Economic Development may by order subject to negative resolution amend the prescribed form set out in sub-paragraph (4).