November 15, 2014 – Europe
On October 30, 2014 the Conference on Work free Sundays was held in Vienna Austria. The well organized European Sunday Alliance, strongly committed to this goal, sponsored the event.
In the past, Sunday work bans were common in America and in Europe. In recent times, the laws have been changed or not enforced some places; but in others such laws were enacted or retained.
The European Sunday Alliance is, in its own words,
“a network of national Sunday Alliances, trade unions, civil society organizations and religious communities committed to raise awareness of the unique value of synchronised free time …”
Numerous organizations from as far north as Norway, as far south as Spain, and the Czech republic to the east are said to be members. A list is available on the alliance’s website.
Prior to the 2014 European elections, the alliance actively solicited the following statement from individuals running for election:
“As a current or future Member of the European Parliament I pledge:
- To ensure that all relevant EU-legislation both respects and promotes the protection of a common weekly day of rest for all EU citizens, which shall be in principle on a Sunday, in order to protect workers’ health and promote a better balance between family and private life and work;
- To promote EU-legislation guaranteeing sustainable working time patterns based on the principle of decent work benefiting society as well as the economy as a whole.”
Pledges were collected from many candidates. The names of the ones who signed the pledge are also listed on the website.
Past attempts to incorporated this into EU law have failed. Instead, such legislation is left up to individual countries. However, the alliance is steadily working toward having Sunday legally recognized as the weekly day of rest throughout Europe.
