[Malza]

Originally Posted by King Herod

Most people who do shift work know that is what they have signed up to, ie emergency services, doctors etc. and most public sector workers also get good pensions and housing subsidies etc so they are well rewarded for their shift working, therefore I fully expect 24 hour service from such workers who are well proteced from the harsh realities faced by those working in the private sector.

I don't know what the going rate is in Germany for retail workers but here it's barely subsistence level. Many companies do NOT pay their shop staff overtime, instead giving them time off in lieu which still has to be negotiated. So before you start mouthing off about the retail sector in the UK be sure of your facts. I'm sure your wages more than compensate you for your regular shift work unless you're a complete moron who likes to give your time for nothing. The retail sector here in the UK is very low paid and work longer hours than many other workers, so why should they be expected to do such late shifts to accommodate better paid workers in public sector jobs who want to shop at midnight? Let those workers use their often far more generous time off to do their shopping at more reasonable hours.

Here in Germany they also have shortened the extra payment for those shifts to a minimum. And I know this sort of jobs are underpaid anyway.

For working on a Sunday I get exactly 78 Euro extra netto (Not really sure if that's a proper amount to cover up a day with friends and family) And actually I have a very well paid job.

And I also did not sign for doing the amount of late shifts I have to do in the past years, I only have to do them because we have less and less employees.

But again. We are talking about doing this for one month per year, not the whole year.

My point is only, that there are lot's of people (also really bad paid ones) who work like that all the time, but they are never mentioned, but when it comes to Christmas I always hear the same conversations about shop staff.