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World News

Church opposes French Sunday trading

It's claimed the French National Assembly will vote through the change, which would create special "international tourist zones" where shops can trade for twelve Sundays a the year, rather than the current five.

The change is meant to spur economic growth, by enabling people to buy more, and in turn, allow businesses to make more money and pay for more labour.

Emmanuel Macron, France's Economy Minister, said: "We must allow those who wish to work on Sundays to do so, as long as they are suitably compensated in terms of wages and rest, because they want this extra work."

Both the Catholic Church and trade unions oppose the move. According to The Independent newspaper, the two bodies argue Sunday trading would ruin the weekend and not deliver the jobs it's meant to.

Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist Mayor of Paris, also opposes the change despite her city most likely benefitting the most from it in France, because she says it would adversely affect smaller businesses which are currently exempt from Sunday trading laws.

The new law does not address the fact some workers are paid extra for working on a Sunday, whilst others are not.

Sunday trading restrictions were originally instated in 1906. Britain relaxed its Sunday trading laws in 1994 under Conservative Prime Minister John Major.

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