In addition to banning the opening of shops on Sundays, with the exception of 16 Sundays a year that the shopkeeper chooses himself, the Government plans to prescribe that the working hours of sales facilities can be a maximum of 90 hours per week.
During the week when they also work on Sundays, shops will be able to be open for 105 hours, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development proposes this, which submitted a proposal for changes to the Trade Act to a public consultation at the weekend, writes Novi list.
This means that shops will be able to be open for 15 hours a day, so those who start working at eight in the morning will be able to be open until 11 pm, and if someone opens a shop at nine in the morning, it can be open until midnight.
The proposal does not state when it would enter into force, but only that it will be a week after its publication in the Official Gazette.
The legislative proposal, which is the third attempt by the Government of Andrej Plenković to close shops on Sundays, does not contain any major innovations compared to earlier proposals.
The law is based on the proposal that was sent to public consultation last July by the same Ministry when it was headed by Tomislav Ćorić.
In addition to small changes, some more recent data on trade turnover was added, which the Ministry refers to when it comes to the damage that the trade could suffer because it will lose 34 working days a year.
Numerous exceptions
The ban on working on Sundays still has numerous exceptions, as explained by the Ministry, due to the need to supply the population, the continuous performance of public services, but also the operation of those facilities that normally work on Sundays and holidays due to the specific needs of consumers.
Thus, bakeries and press distribution kiosks will be able to work every Sunday from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Shops that are located inside or are part of railway and bus stations, air and ferry ports, ports of inland navigation, ships, airplanes and ferries for the transport of people and vehicles may be open without restrictions on working hours on Sundays.
The ban on working on Sundays does not even apply to shops inside gas stations, hospitals, hotels, cultural and religious institutions, although it is precisely the religious communities that have advocated the banning of working on Sundays the most in recent years.
Sunday will also be a working day for shops located within museums, visitor centers or interpretation centers, nautical marinas, campsites, family farms and declared protected nature areas in accordance with special regulations.
Even in the case of previous drafts of legal changes, a large number of exceptions caused the biggest objections from traders who pointed out that, for example, gas stations have already turned into grocery stores where you can also buy bread and milk, and that this will happen even more. after the ban on working on Sundays.
There will be no work bans on Sundays even when purchasing primary agricultural products, selling own agricultural products at stands and benches at retail and wholesale markets.
Exceptions are sales at fairs and public events, as well as sales via vending machines and sales at a distance, i.e. via the Internet.
Real consumption
The law, the Ministry believes, will correct the current practice according to which trade has become an exception to the general rule on weekly rest, for which there is no necessary justification.
It states that economic science indicates that consumption is influenced by basic factors such as consumer income, prices of goods and services, and consumer taste, and that store hours have never emerged as a factor that could influence personal consumption.
“Real consumption is a stable function of real disposable income. “Individuals base their consumption on income, and therefore it is an illusion that economic activity increases by extending working hours,” the Ministry concludes.
They also state consumption data, including last year’s, according to which in the period from 2018 to the end of 2021, turnover in shops on Sundays was the lowest, and that the share in weekly turnover ranged from 7.89 to 9.50 percent.
Last year, the average turnover in shops on Sundays was HRK 9.44 billion and made up 8.79 percent of the weekly average.
The situation is somewhat different when it comes to large shopping centers, which have the highest weekly traffic on Saturdays (from 19.72 percent to 22.15 percent), while Sunday is in second place with a share of weekly traffic from 15.01 to 17.77 percent. .
Neighborhood stores announce their closure
As every time before, the law has already caused reactions, so some family businesses have already included in the public consultation, warning that the application of such a law will mean shutting down because, as stated by the Marija business, they work on Sundays because they have to in order to survive. and not because they want to.
“Small neighborhood stores and family businesses will be collateral victims of such a law, what large foreign retail chains did not destroy, now this law will.” I also have a question. Why is work persistently defended in only one sector, when we know that a large number of sectors can work, for example catering, food industry…”, they state from trade Marija.
Citizens are warning the Government that the seasonal policy, because trade will now follow tourism, will result in further demographic decline and emigration, as well as a reduction in economic growth.
They also add that part of the workers in the store will lose their jobs due to non-working Sundays, and on those 16 Sundays of the year, workers will have to work overtime for a large part of the retailers, because it is senseless and legally complicated to hire a worker for a period of one month or they will be employed seasonally and agency workers from third countries, as is now the case in tourism.
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