Sunday Work Ban Harms Small Retailers, Benefits Exceptions

The Sunday work ban in stores, promised in the Government’s election program, came into effect on July 1. As the weeks progress, there are increasing estimates that it has harmed small retailers, while those covered by exceptions have not missed the opportunity for additional profit.

Since the ban came into effect in the middle of the tourist season, coastal towns are utilizing the quota of 16 Sundays when they are allowed to operate, while most stores on the mainland do not operate on Sundays.

Those stores that fall under the exception of the ban – if they are located within train stations – have thus become the most visited places in the city on Sundays and holidays, where people wait in line to make purchases.

It also happens that gas stations are expanding their assortment, selling bread along with fuel, while bakeries are closed.

At the same time, there is increasing willingness to seek additional legal exceptions, alongside the already defined framework that stores can operate 16 Sundays a year, a possibility mainly utilized on the coast.

After the weekend of August 5 and 6, when a holiday preceded Sunday, many municipalities and cities began to declare fair days for the upcoming holiday – the Assumption of Mary, so that trading could still take place.

They were first declared in tourist locations – on Hvar, in Baška, Crikvenica, Pula, Split, then the opportunity for tourist promotion and advertising was recognized on the mainland, so they were declared by Zagreb and Varaždin as well. Most of them declared fair days for all remaining Sundays in August and September.

HUP: Constitutional Complaint and Temporary Measure to Suspend the Ban

Such scenes are for many opponents of the Sunday ban, the essence of the implementation of the Sunday work ban. This is the third legal ban on Sunday work for stores. The first two were struck down by the Constitutional Court.

Immediately after the legal ban was enacted, the Association of Entrepreneurs’ Voice (UGP) submitted a proposal for the assessment of the constitutionality of the new Trade Act, and the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP) plans to do the same.

They will submit it after actual financial indicators for trade during the summer months of this year become available, they announce.

“We will propose to the Constitutional Court the adoption of a temporary measure to suspend the Sunday work restrictions. We intend to protect the most vulnerable group of small family retailers,” emphasize HUP.

Small Retailers at a Loss in the First Week of August

They estimate that in the first week of August, due to two non-working days, the real turnover in smaller retail chains and stores fell by 15 percent.

The president of UGP, Hrvoje Bujas, claims that small retailers who are members of that association had even 30 percent less turnover.

Economic analyst Damir Novotny points out that it is still early to present analyses on the effects of the Sunday work ban, as most retailers have utilized some of the 16 working Sundays that the law allows them to operate annually.

“An additional blow to retail chains is expected next year when the 16 working Sundays need to be distributed throughout the entire year, not just half a year,” they emphasize in HUP, adding that 50 days of closed doors will be a significant blow to business.

Gas Stations Have Long Been Selling Consumer Goods

These two associations also warn of another negative effect of the law – the emergence of unfair competition.

However, not all economic associations in the country believe that it is prompted by the new law.

From the Trade Sector of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK), they say that conclusions should still be awaited, but they do not see an exclusive connection between the sudden expansion of the assortment for those whom the law exceptionally allowed to operate on Sundays and the legal ban.

“Specifically, for a long time, a wider assortment of consumer goods has been available at gas stations,” they say in HGK.

The claim that the ban has nothing to do with the new role of gas stations in consumers’ lives on Sundays, which sell not only bread but also spreads and milk, is reinforced by the reminder that not so long ago, gas stations were also places where citizens went to buy coffee. This refers to the time when cafes were closed during lockdown due to epidemiological measures.

HUP further warns that such purchases on holidays and Sundays, at those who have suddenly expanded their assortment, will further increase the inflationary burden on citizens, as basic foodstuffs are more expensive there than in regular stores.

It Is Unclear Who Can Sell During Fair Days

Special sales and fair days have been declared in several dozen cities and municipalities in Croatia for the upcoming holiday of the Assumption of Mary, but also for the following Sundays, while it is not entirely clear what can be sold on those fair days and what cannot,

the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development has only reminded of the letter of the law that ‘special sales allow the sale only of products and goods that are the subject and purpose of organizing the mentioned events’.

The specific question of whether, for example, in Crikvenica, when they declared a tourist-promotional fair day for the Assumption of Mary, a tobacco shop can operate as part of such a fair and sell souvenirs remains unanswered.

The Ministry also emphasizes that declaring these fair days is not ‘a loophole in the law’, but a legal possibility that all cities and municipalities can utilize.

While the Sunday work ban is justified by balancing family and business life, sociologist Jasminka Lažnjak from the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb points out that it is difficult to say whether it has brought anything good or bad to anyone.

– These bans raise legitimate questions that arise from the perspective of different interest groups, which in this case are mostly opposed – she emphasizes.

From an economic perspective, it is evident that this regulation, according to claims from the liberal sector, restricts consumer rights, as well as the realization of profit and entrepreneurial freedom, for example, for kiosk owners who work alone in that kiosk to earn profit even on Sundays.

Emphasis on Traditional Values, but Also a Concession to the Church

When looking at what social values are imposed by this ban, Lažnjak says that it is indisputable that it is an attempt to emphasize traditional values – and Sunday is a traditional day of rest in Croatian society, but there are constant pressures from social actors, in this case, the Church, to declare it a non-working day – because according to its values, it is sacred.

– This is certainly a concession to the Church – she emphasizes and notes that in church pressures, there is an attempt to stop the secular trend in Croatian society, which in her assessment will not be successful.

There is also a clear attempt to meet the demands of defenders of workers’ rights, especially from the perspective that there is a significant disparity in the respect of those rights in the private and public sectors in Croatia.

The Effect of the Ban on Workers’ Rights Will Not Be Spectacular

From the Trade Union of Croatia, they emphasize that workers in retail who did not work Sundays and holidays in the previous period are satisfied.

– Every application of new regulations requires the adjustment of all participants, in this case, citizens and employers – said Zlatica Štulić, the president of that union.

She believes that this is a good change that people will get used to, and that turnover will be redistributed.

Despite the union’s support for the legal ban on Sunday work, Teo Matković from the Institute for Social Research assesses that the Sunday work ban in retail will not have a noticeable positive effect on the improvement of workers’ rights.

Approximately one-third of employees in Croatia in the last fifteen years, since research has been conducted, have worked at least one Sunday a month. Croatia is above the European average in this regard, as Croatians also often work at other times that are difficult to reconcile with private life: in the evening, at night, and on Saturdays.

– All these forms negatively affect the alignment of work with private and family life because in the evening, on weekends, you cannot be with your children, family, and friends. These are not such small sacrifices that appear – says Matković.

– It can be said that this ban, in the perspective of improving workers’ rights, is a much less robust instrument than, for example, a much simpler additional payment for Sunday work, better control of the total amount of weekly work, and overtime hours – he assesses.

He emphasizes that only in the last Labor Act did the state recognize Sunday work as something that should be additionally paid.

“It is indicative how the state has legally prescribed the amount only for Sunday, and not, for example, for night work and overtime, while evening work and Saturday work are not mentioned,” says Matković.

Consumers Will Find It Hard to Adapt

Although the actual ruling will ultimately be given by the Constitutional Court, until then, Lažnjak believes that it is necessary to consider what the unintended consequences of such regulation might be.

Reflecting on the fact that we live in a consumer society, and that there is a trend of liberalizing store working hours in Croatia, rather than restricting them, it is evident, claims Lažnjak, that changes in individual behavior as consumers will not be easy.

“Informal institutions, once they take hold, cannot be changed so arbitrarily,” she says, emphasizing that the possibility of going shopping on Sundays and holidays has existed for the last 30 years and has become part of consumer habits and the culture of society.

It also raises the question of whether it is possible for society, instead of consumer values, to accept some other values as more prioritized – for example, whether Croatians will now, as Slovenians do, go en masse to nature on Sundays instead of shopping centers.