During the ongoing election campaign, the subject of trade Sundays is again frequently discussed. The Citizens' Coalition proposes that shops can be opened all day. Andrzej Domański, chief economist of the Civic Institute, stressed that during the discussion on election promises, trade unions expressed specified expectations. During the debate organized by Business Centre Club and the Polish Association of Developer Companies announced:
"We want to reconstruct all commercial Sundays. The staff will be entitled to twice the wage for the working day on the weekend in relation to the rate on the working day and 2 weekends off per month."
Hello, Jarek? Are you asleep? Why did you lock the shops on Sunday? #TelephoneDomarkpic.twitter.com/as5SIsWass
— Citizen Platform (@Platforma_org) September 11, 2023
It's not just KO who wants change.
The 3rd Road besides has akin plans, proposing the introduction of 2 trade Sundays per month. During the electoral convention, Szymon Holownia pointed out that this plan could only be implemented with respect for workers' rights. To this end, the organization plans to fund the State Labour Inspection.
After us, the last Sunday of trade before the election, another in December. This is an absurd ban, which led to the bankruptcy of thousands of Polish entrepreneurs. It's not wise to tell us how to spend Sundays.
— Simon Holownia (@symon_townia) August 28, 2023
The president of the National Section of Trade Workers of the NSZZ "Solidarity", Alfred Bujara, does not support the opposition's initiative. As he stated in an interview with the portal forhandlu.pl:
"We do not believe in specified solutions due to the fact that we have seen many things. During Tusk's reign we had to work frequently from Sunday to Sunday on garbage contracts for 3.50 or 4.50 PLN per hour. This is what we thank you for the ideas that abroad corporations lobby for. Traders can't imagine anyone taking their Sundays off. The financial allowance for working on Sundays is not a solution."
Current situation
It turns out that this year we have only 2 commercial Sundays left: December 17th and December 24th (on the second day the shops will be open until 14:00 maximum). The Polish Trade and Distribution Organisation and the Consumer Federation requested that the trade Sunday be transferred from 24 December to 10 or 31 December. This is, of course, due to Christmas Eve. At this point, however, nothing is known about the change of plans.
And yet another nonsense is Trade Sunday 24.12.2023- on this day the shops can be open until 2:00. pic.twitter.com/5sh7Wxt07m
— Robert KR (@RobertKosRobos) April 30, 2023
Overall, only 7 commercial Sundays were designated for 2023.
What do Poles think?
In September 2021, ACE investigation for the AdRetail Group conducted a survey on a example of 1017 Poles aged 18-80. The selected persons were to find their attitude towards commercial Sundays. More than half of the respondents, due to the fact that 54.9%, advocated a complete return of trade on Sundays. 35.8% were against it, and 9.3% of the respondents did not take a clear stand on this issue.
Sunday trade interesting who this trade was
— ✧・゚marceli ・゚✧ * (@syachisou) September 9, 2023
