Aucklanders will be asked whether they think the city should keep the ban on Easter Sunday trading.
Photo: 123RF
Auckland Council is to decide whether to leave the ban in place next year or lift it as as allowed in new legislation.
At a council meeting this morning several councillors spoke strongly against allowing trading on the holiday. Manukau Ward councillor Efeso Collins said 87 percent of Pasifika people went to church on Sunday, and the community had given a clear message the ban should remain.
North Shore councillor Richard Hills told the meeting vulnerable workers struggled to exercise their right to opt out of work on that day. In an increasingly hectic life, he said, Easter Sunday was a welcome break.
The meeting also heard presentations from the Manurewa, Mangere-Otahuhu and Otara-Papatoetoe local boards, which strongly opposed trading on a day they said was important to families and churchgoers.
Angela Dalton, who chairs the Manurewa Local Board, said before the meeting that, though new legislation would allow workers to opt out, the most vulnerable would not get a choice on whether to work on Easter Sunday.
Councillors unanimously agreed to consult the public on whether to leave the ban in place next year before making a decision in August.
Last year, the Shop Trading Hours Act was amended to allow local councils to decide whether to let retailers open over Easter.
Queenstown Lakes District Council has voted give Wanaka retailers the option to open on Easter Sunday for the first time this year