Quote:
Originally Posted by Tealeaf
There are a couple of points that I have not yet seen raised on this issue of 6 day opening:
1) Historically, most towns grew around their markets which were granted by Royal Charter; these charters - often going back to the 12th or 13th centuries - specified on which days markets were to be held in the town (usually, two or three times a week). My questions therefore are a) Does Accy hold an historic Charter? b) When was it granted? and c) what conditions are there pertaining to the holding of the market? It may well be that by forcing traders to open 6 days a week, the council is in violation of it's charter and action as such may be illegal under ancient statute.
This is one for Retlaw, I think so come in Walter & lets have your thoughts.
b) While i am certainly no lover of the EU, anyone in business is fully aware of the mass of employment legislation originating in Brussels. Employment Protection covers not just employees, but the self-employed as well. This legislation covers the amount of time anyone can legally work without a break and as such it seems to me that by forcing many of these self-employed market stall holders to work 6 days through they will be in violation of EU law.
I'm not a lawyer or an HR guy but maybe someone who knows more about this can comment.
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The legal team at HBC is headed by a very thorough woman who advises all councillors on every decision taken, it seems incredibly unlikely that anything would have slipped past her.
European working time directives allow a 48 hour week (with certain exclusions up to 60 hours, I think) and 6 x 8 hour days would fall within that remit. Stallholders will learn how to hold their bladders for 8 hours and forego refreshment breaks, in fact market traders will probably thrive on it, especially in winter months when the cold weather buggers up your plumbing.
Those mithering sods who insist on such luxuries will simply have to hire more staff and support the Market Hall in the same way that Cllr Haworth is doing.