Are there times when retail employees cannot refuse to work on public holidays or Sundays?
The special rules regarding public holidays and Sunday work in the Act that allow certain retail employees to refuse to work public holidays and Sundays do not apply if the main business is to: • sell prepared meals (i.e., restaurants, cafeterias, cafs) • rent living accommodations (i.e., hotels, tourist resorts, camps, inns) • provide educational, recreational or amusement services to the public (i.e., museums, art galleries, sports stadiums) • sell goods and services that are secondary to the businesses described above and are located on the same premises (i.e., museum gift shops, souvenir shops in sports stadiums) This means that retail employees working in these kinds of businesses have no right under the Act to refuse Sunday work. This also means that the regular rules about public holidays will apply to retail employees working in these kinds of businesses. Under these regular rules, some of these employees will still have the right to refuse to work public holidays.
