Poland’s parliament has voted in favour of closing a loophole that has allowed many large chains of shops to evade a ban on Sunday trading by offering postal services.
A majority of 272 MPs in the Sejm, the dominant lower chamber, voted for the amendment, with 135 against. Among those in favour was the ruling national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which introduced the trading ban in 2018 at the request of the Solidarity trade union and Catholic church.
The rules, which oblige shops to close on all but seven Sundays a year, contain a number of exemptions. That includes premises offering postal services, which are allowed to remain open. As a result, many supermarket and convenience store chains have started offering such services.
The newly approved amendment would close that loophole by only allowing businesses that primarily offer postal services to stay open on that basis. They must prove that such services account for more than half of the revenue of a given premises.
The legislation now moves to the upper-house Senate, where the opposition has a majority. However, while that chamber can delay the bill for up to a month, it cannot block it against an absolute majority in the Sejm.
If the amendment passes parliament, it is then up to the president – PiS ally Andrzej Duda – to either sign or veto the bill, or send it to the Constitutional Tribunal for assessment.
The first major chain to exploit the postal-service loophole was Żabka, a large network of convenience stores. It has been followed by almost 20 other chains, including Kaufland, Biedronka and, most recently, Lidl.
That has led to demands from the Solidarity trade union for the loophole to be closed. It says that the ban is necessary to give workers a guaranteed day off to spend time with their family.
The government also argued that the ban would help small, independent stores, which were allowed to stay open on Sundays as long as their owner or family members were working. However, evidence indicates that such shops have suffered from the ban, while some big chains, especially discounters, have benefited.
In an effort to help such small enterprises, the amendments approved yesterday by parliament also expand the list of family members who can work in shops on Sundays. As well as the owner’s spouse, children, parents and stepparents, their siblings, grandchildren and grandparents will also be allowed to work.
During parliamentary debate this week, the main opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), argued that the Sunday trading ban should be ended entirely.
Its MPs said that, through its numerous exceptions, the law created certain “privileged” groups and that it has also caused tens of thousands of students – who previously worked on weekends – to lose their jobs, reports Money.pl.
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
