Retailers say their plan to simplify shopping hours in Queensland's southeast will kill off a horrible system that's plagued traders for years.
The current system, with 10 separate trading hours time zones between Noosa and Coolangatta, should be scrapped in favour of a single zone, the National Retail Association (NRA) says.
It has lodged an application with the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission (QIRC) proposing hours be unified to 7am to 9pm Monday to Saturday.
"This isn't a radical departure from the balance that already exists in the trading rules," NRA chief executive Trevor Evans said.
"We are not looking at any changes to the rules for Sundays or public holidays. This does not force any shops to open."
The change would boost the Queensland economy and create around 1000 jobs, both in retail and up the supply chain, Mr Evans said.
The legislation would apply to businesses with more than 20 people on one site, or more than 60 employees across their operations.
Electronic, furniture, fashion and department stores, as well as supermarkets, would all be included.
Mr Evans said the biggest change would be on Saturday afternoons, with the current system meaning shops can close from anywhere between 5pm and 9pm, depending on their location.
"This is not about 24-7, or open slather, or de-regulation ... this is a clean-up job where we are trying to reduce the complexity of what is quite a horrific system of laws for Australian retailers to comply with."
He said there was no trade-off between the industrial relations space and trading hours laws, and most enterprise agreements dictate that any work beyond normal hours is voluntary.
"So we don't envisage that any worker will be forced to work any hours that they don't want to."
The NRA has provided evidence to the QIRC to show a change is warranted via an independent court process.
Mr Evans said they were anticipating a decision between March and June 2015.
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