Domestic customers and foreign tourists have been trying in vain to enter stores, which were, without exception, closed on the Day of Victory and Homeland Gratitude, August 5. This Saturday, the news from the Trade Law hit merchants, consumers, and especially tourists for the first time.
Therefore, last Tuesday was a fair day for Zagreb, Split (the fair was declared for all Sundays in August and September), Trogir, Makarska, Podgora, Hvar, Stari Grad, Jelsa, Supetar, Sutivan, Bol, Komiža, Rijeka (Trsat), Opatija, Crikvenica, Baška, Cres, Pula, Rovinj, Umag, Labin, Buje, Pirovac, Samobor, Dugo Selo, Svetu Nedelju, Svetog Ivana Zelinu, Križ, Varaždin (and Sundays during ‘Špancirfest’), Koprivnica (and Sunday during the ‘Renaissance Festival’)…
A Gap and the Virgin in the Law
A gap, or the Virgin in the Trade Law, was discovered by a number of opposition mayors and municipal heads, as well as some HDZ mayors, who declared fair days in Novalja, Crikvenica, Mali Lošinj, and, of course, the largest Marian shrine in Marija Bistrica (where all Sundays until September 10 were declared fair days).
By turning the state into a Croatian fair on the feast of the Assumption (and actually a fairground), local leaders opposed the grotesque law that prohibits Sunday work for only one activity. Thus, cashiers in large retail chains can ‘rest’ on Sundays from early dawn by cleaning and cooking lunch for the whole family (along with the obligatory mass).
Fortunately, Plenković’s appeasement of the Church does not apply to producers, some of whom work in three shifts seven days a week due to the nature of their work and the demands of the technological process or market. It should be noted that shift work is far more demanding than Sunday work, especially the third, night shift. However, there are not many complaints from ‘three-shift’ companies, and especially no union actions. Instead of copying the model from industry to retail, the government has prohibited Sunday work for the third time. Now we are waiting for the third ruling from the Constitutional Court, which has already overturned similar legal provisions twice. However, the HDZ can be calm, as it is already estimated that the constitutional judges will need more than a year for a decision, which means that the third overturning of the Sunday work ban will not jeopardize the electoral results of the HDZ, as the elections for the Croatian and European Parliament will have long passed by then, and the strongest party is entering the presidential elections without major ambitions anyway – it has not even determined a challenger to Zoran Milanović yet.
A Great Struggle for Small Retailers
In the meantime, large retail chains will certainly not go bankrupt, and the biggest victims are small retailers. According to Fina’s data (InfoBiz), 2,376 companies and crafts with fewer than ten employees in the retail sector submitted financial reports for the past year (in non-specialized stores and in food and beverage stores, at stalls and markets and outside them, excluding specialized stores, which do not work on Sundays anyway, and mail and internet stores). These mostly family-owned companies are the most vulnerable category of small retailers, employing a total of 6,280 people (mostly family members).
Last year, they generated 667.65 million euros in revenue and reported a profit of 19.05 million, which means they operated with a thin margin of only 2.8 percent. Among them, as many as 680, or 28 percent, operated at a loss. The Sunday drop in revenue (by at least ten percent) will direct many towards negative business, and some towards bankruptcy. However, it seems that for the government, this is an acceptable collateral sacrifice as this move affects 60,000 employees in the entire retail sector. It is assumed that even the undecided among them will vote for the HDZ in the elections; unless employers start reducing wages or even laying off employees due to decreased revenue.
