“I work on Sunday and I can’t see my children anymore”

Dear director,

I’m writing to express my unease for a stressful and pressing matter. I have been working for ages in a shopping centre in the city and since the right to work on Sunday was liberalised, I don’t live anymore!!!

I started working one Sunday a month, then two and now we open every Sunday and, working shifts, I work two Sundays in a month, but, due to the crisis, companies do not take on anymore. People who have a terminable contract are fired, so “old” people who stay here have to work in absurd shifts, all day long, with crazy pauses. We also have to work all Sundays.

Now, I have got three children and I don’t live anymore, I don’t see my children anymore, who are forced to stay at home on Sundays because their mother always works (my day-off is during the week. I cannot take on commitments, make arrangements in advance etc.). I never see my children, because obviously they go to school or to the kindergarten, also my third child is only 2 years old and, according to the law, I shouldn’t work on Sundays and on holidays. The company knows it but it turns a deaf ear. If I’m not wrong, working Sundays must not exceed 30% of the total, but I think I exceed it by a lot.

I called the trade unions asking for explanations about my rights and they answered: “You’re right, the law is on your same side, but nowadays you have to keep your job and go on.” So I realised that the crisis gave full powers to companies in order to do whatever they want without following laws and to the detriments of workers, and, as far as I’m concerned,  I’m a puppet in their hands!   Sorry for my outpouring!! I quote a piece of an article in which minister Camusso says: “The consumption can’t be the only model in social life. This is the reason why Sunday has to be preserved in its real value.” Susanna Camusso stressed it. “Shops that remain open on Sunday don’t help consumption but they make workers’ life harder.”

Unease increases and gets worse and worse!!!

Yours sincerely.