Trading ban on Sunday. Discussion in the House of Representatives on the Poland 2050 project

The Sunday Trade Restriction Law entered into force on March 1, 2018. It provides for a list of 32 exceptions.

The trade ban does not include, among other things: postal activity if the revenues from this activity constitute at least 40%. Revenues from the sale of a specific facility. In addition, this does not apply to sweet shops, ice cream shops, liquid petrol stations, flower shops, newsagents or cafes. The penalty for breaking the trading ban on Sunday is PLN 1,000 to PLN 100,000. A fine of Polish zlotys, and in case of continued violation of the regulations – a penalty of restriction of freedom.

A draft law to ease restrictions and allow two business Sundays per month was submitted to the Sejm at the end of March 2024 by members of Parliament from Poland 2050. According to the project, double pay will be paid for working on Sunday, and the employer will have the obligation to allocate a day off to the employee 6 days earlier From or after work on Sunday.

However, neither trade unions nor retail chain organizations like this idea. Both small and large.

– First, the method of presenting this law must be criticized, because implementing this type of legislative process through the parliamentary situation absolutely does not provide the opportunity for the social side to take a position and should absolutely be avoided because it does not provide space. For public consultations – Maciej Ptaszynski, President of the Polish Chamber, told TVN24 Trade. Moreover, more and more consumers are now accepting the status quo when it comes to the current Sunday trading schedule. He stressed that the solution we are currently dealing with, i.e. the possibility of opening shops by owners standing alone behind the counter, based on the exceptions allowed in the law, is fully in line with supporting MSME owners. .

The PIH President also noted that the current price battle between large retail chains represents a very difficult situation for small stores, because it is difficult for them to survive in the market at the moment. If at this stage we allow the large chains to trade on Sunday, it means a very difficult situation for those who run small outlets.

More information about sales representative jobs can be found at: Risk of “Reinforcing Local Store Closing Trend.” Industry appeal

The advocate of the project is Ryszard Petrou, who presented it in the House of Representatives and during his speech said that he saw room for changes, such as giving employees additional vacation or financial satisfaction. Petro said about himself: “I am a lobbyist for Polish industry, Polish trade, Polish taxpayers and the Polish economy.”

First of all, there is now a discussion about whether we will refer the project to the committee or not. Secondly, we have two options: either we have a trading ban as before, or we start talking about the formula in which we will be able to trade on Sunday. We have proposed a compromise solution, and there are other solutions that we can take into consideration in the committee’s work. And those who want to reject it on first reading are effectively sending the signal that they don’t want to talk at all. “Those who talk about dialogue do not actually want to have a dialogue,” Ryssard Petro said after his speech in the House of Representatives in response to journalists’ questions.

As TVN24 correspondent Jan Piotrowski noted, the conflict in the Sejm “erupted not along the classical lines outlined in the Polish parliament or Polish politics, but more broadly along the lines dividing the Civic Coalition, its allies and PiS.”

– Today we have this disagreement along the old, perhaps not like the world, but certainly like capitalism, the dividing line between liberals and socialists, or simply the left. There are a lot of arguments given by supporters and opponents of Sunday trading restrictions or their cancellation – TVN24 correspondent noted.

“People have the right to simply rest on Sunday, and the idea of ​​Ryszard Pietro, and perhaps only Ryszard Pietro and shopping malls, is not necessary,” said Adrian Zandberg from the parliamentary podium.

– This is unnecessary, first of all, because the employees clearly and decisively say that they want to rest on Sunday, so these imaginary people that Ryszard Pietro spoke about are simply not representative of the employee organizations whose position is clear here. But let’s be honest: they do not dream of opening larger stores, because there are already recruitment problems. These people who run kiosks in malls fear being forced to work seven days a week, even though they don’t want to do it at all. “A coalition of Ryszard Petru and malls really wants to bring these changes in,” Zandberg said.

At the end of his speech, the representative from the left, Richard Petro, in his capacity as the sponsor of the project, asked: “Richard, are your party’s parliamentary offices open on Sundays?” The voices in the hall answered, “Yes.” . “All parliamentary offices of your party are open. Do you serve them on Sundays?” – Zandberg added, and he answered yes.

“Currently there is a certain balance between the interests of consumers and the interests of traders, merchants, entrepreneurs and similar entities dealing in broadly understood trade,” said Jan Mosinski, law and justice lawmaker.

The TVN24 correspondent noted that the division between the parties in the House of Representatives is currently such that PiS and the Left reject the project, Confederaja – “maybe yes”, and Droga III – “definitely yes”. In turn, the Civic Coalition wants the project to “go further”, which is not surprising, after all, the Sunday trade relief was included in the so-called 100 details.