Sunday work, time use and social and family life: an analysis based on the Time Use Survey.

Summary The debates on Sunday work oppose, on the one hand, the advocates of the freedom to work without constraint who put forward the gains in competitiveness of the economy and the job opportunities that would be created by opening shops on Sundays, and on the other hand, both the defenders, who are fewer and fewer in number, of a time devoted to sanctification and those who advocate maintaining a common time devoted to life in society and to the family. The former invoke the evolution of society, modes of consumption, and economic competition in a globalized world, while the latter appeal to socio-historical works, to the socio-anthropological dimension of Sunday and to the need to preserve its specificity. On both sides, little reference is made to the living and working conditions of employees who have to work on Sundays. The study carried out here on the basis of the Time Use Survey, although not a study of the impact of working on Sundays as such, makes it possible to compare the use of time by those who work on Sundays with those who do not work that day. According to the econometric estimates, working on Sundays is associated with a loss of family and friends and a reduction in leisure time that goes beyond those observed on a weekday and that are not, in general, entirely offset by the compensatory rest day. Moreover, employees who work on Sundays, i.e., who are involved in a form of atypical work, are also those who are most involved in atypical working hours on weekdays.