By Max Clarke
The Government's pre-consultation on moving the May Day bank holiday to the autumn have been met with fierce opposition by the Trades Union Congress.
Doing so would negatively affect the UK’s retail, tourism, entertainment industries would all be negatively affected,TUC chief, Brenden Barber warned ministers.
“Ministers would be wise not to mess around with a popular public holiday that enjoys a wide range of support - from trade unionists to gardening enthusiasts. Instead, they should examine the wellbeing and 'big society' benefits of creating a new bank holiday,” continued Barber.
The lack of any strong support from the tourist industry for moving May Day suggests that the proposal is more about pleasing a few Conservative backbenchers who ignorantly assume it to be a 'socialist holiday', rather than a real attempt to boost the UK domestic tourism industry or improve people's work-life balance, says the TUC.
The submission says that the government's time would be better spent examining the wellbeing of UK employees who work among the longest hours in Europe and have the stingiest allocation of public holidays.
Creating a new day off in late October - focused on volunteering and community work - would be a much better way to generate health, social and economic benefits from our calendar of public holidays, says the TUC.
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