Woolworths will open in Southall on Christmas Day

The news was warmly welcomed by Usdaw, the shop workers' union, which said all workers deserve a day off.

The Christmas Day (Trading) Bill will forbid stores above 280 square metres or about 3,000 square feet from opening on 25December.

The law would not change until 2004, but Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt is urging large shops to close this year.

Woolworths, however, is to open one big store this Christmas, in Southall, London, which has a large population of ethnic minorities.

Future protection

The private member's bill is being put forward by Kevan Jones, the Labour MP for Durham North, and was co-drafted with Usdaw.

HAVE YOUR SAY Surely the shopaholic British public can manage for two days without shops being open? Pat Nalder, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire Send us your comments

It will get its first reading on 7 January.

A spokesman for Usdaw said: "Our belief is that shop workers simply deserve the day off and it needs to be protected.

"At present any store can open on Christmas Day, unless it falls on a Sunday."

The spokesman added that the law was necessary to prevent workers from having to work on Christmas Day in the future.

He said: "If you go back 20 years and said all the shops would be open on a Sunday, no one would have believed you.

Religion

"This is our fear for Christmas Day, in that if the law is not changed now, we will reach a stage in a few years' time where opening on December 25 is a common occurrence," he said.

He added that it was not a religious issue.

"This has nothing to do with religion, rather our believe that workers deserve the day off.

"Christmas Day is the highlight of Britain's cultural calendar and so should be protected."

In addition to Woolworths opening its branch in Southall, a few of the supermarkets, including Sainsbury's, will be opening their smaller stores attached to petrol stations.

These are however too small to be affected by the proposed change in the law.

Denied pay

According to TUC figures, nearly 800,000 employees will be working on Christmas Day without any guarantee of extra pay.

And it says three million UK workers will be denied holiday pay for 25 December.

The UK is the only European Union country where workers are not entitled to pay if they take a bank holiday off.

The TUC wants the European Commission to use its review of EU working hours to force UK firms to pay up.