President Andrzej Duda has signed a bill granting an exception to Poland’s Sunday trading ban this weekend. The measure is intended to spread Christmas shopping over a greater number of days amid the pandemic and to help ailing businesses.
The bill was approved by parliament on Wednesday, but Duda delayed signing it until this morning. Trade unionists, who were behind the introduction of the Sunday trading ban, had appealed to the president not to approve the exemption, warning that it puts overworked retail staff at even greater risk.
Most shops have only been permitted to open on seven Sundays this year, under a trading ban that began to be introduced in 2018 and reached its full extent in 2020. Two of those trading Sundays are on 13 and 20 December, but on 6 December shops were meant to be closed.
Justifying the decision to allow trading this Sunday as well, the government says it will “reduce the number of customers shopping at the same time” ahead of Christmas, reports Interia. But the aim is also to produce a “positive effect for businesses” by “improving their financial situation”.
However, Poland’s largest trade union, Solidarity – which originally launched the trading ban initiative in 2017 – had appealed to Duda not to allow this Sunday’s exemption to go ahead.
In a letter to the president, Solidarity said that retail staff are among those at the greatest risk of coronavirus infection. Amid widespread sick leave and quarantine, staff are already overworked, and for many Sunday is the only day “they can rest a little and rejuvenate”, wrote Solidarity.
The union called on Duda to show “solidarity, as taught by Saint John Paul II”, in this “tough time”.
Some opponents have also warned that this one-off exemption could be a slippery slope towards the reintroduction of Sunday trading through the back door.
Although the measure has been supported by the conservative ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, one of its senators, Jan Maria Jackowski, told Catholic broadcaster TV Trwam that “people of good will” are concerned that “under the guide of fighting COVID-19 the consensus is being broken” and trading reintroduced “every Sunday”.
By contrast, the opposition have criticised the president and government for dragging their feet on the legislation. The delay has left employers, staff and shoppers unsure until this morning whether shops will be open on Sunday.
Adam Szejnfeld, a senator from Civic Coalition (KO), the largest opposition group, said that “retail is not an island detached from other areas: from transport, logistics and producers”. People will not have enough time to “sign contracts and deliver goods” overnight, he warned.
When introduced – as a legislative initiative proposed by Solidarity with the support of the powerful Catholic church – the Sunday trading ban was presented as a way to allow workers to spend Sundays with their families while also supporting small, independent businesses against big international retailers.
Those exempted from the ban include stores operated by their owner, as well as petrol stations, shops selling souvenirs or religious items, bakeries, florists, pharmacies, and shops at airports and public transport terminals.
Surveys, however, have shown Poles increasingly opposed to the measure. When asked if the ban should be abolished, almost half (48%) of respondents said that it should, compared to 36% who think it should not, reported Rzeczpospolita earlier this year.
E-commerce is also exempt from the restrictions. Poland’s relatively low rate of online retail has been pushed up by the pandemic, with the share of online retail jumping from 5.6% at the start of 2020 to 8.1% in March and 11.6% in April.
Main image credit: Michal Jarmoluk z Pixabay
Maria Wilczek is deputy editor of Notes from Poland. She is a regular writer for The Times, The Economist and Al Jazeera English, and has also featured in Foreign Policy, Politico Europe, The Spectator and Gazeta Wyborcza.
