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Notes from Poland, by Alicja Ptak: Poland’s government will meet with representatives of the retail industry to remind them about compliance with a ban on Sunday trading, amid efforts by some stores to find loopholes allowing them to circumvent the restrictions.

“This day should be spent with family. It is a time for family, for prayer, not for spending time in the store,” Marlena Maląg, the minister for family, work and social policy, told Catholic broadcaster TV Trwam. “This is what we would like to talk about at the roundtable [discussion with retailers].”

Poland’s ban on Sunday trading was introduced in 2018 by the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS)-led government, fulfilling an initiative launched by the Solidarity trade union and supported by the Catholic Church.

However, the restrictions contain a number of exceptions, which some retail chains have sought to exploit. Earlier this year, the government closed one such loophole that allowed stores to remain open if they offered postal services.

Polish media report that some retailers – especially in the large franchise chain of Żabka convenience stories – are staying open by, for example using self-service cash registers with an employee officially “only arranging goods on the shelves”.

In recent weeks, Biedronka, one of Poland’s biggest discount chains, was reportedly considering operating on Sundays by offering an in-store reading club or medical facility. Eventually, the firm backed out of the idea, according to Solidarity.

In her remarks this week, Maląg criticised attempts by businesses to circumvent the legislation, saying that they “should aim to fully comply with the Sunday trading ban”.

“Just like the whole thing about the plan to open reading rooms in Biedronkas – here we successfully countered to ensure that this did not happen and, with the involvement of the labour inspectorate, of course, inspections were carried out,” she added.

“We agreed that we would like to sit down for a roundtable. On the one hand the social side, on the other we would like to invite representatives of the industry and talk about the idea of closed shops on Sunday,” she said. The meeting is expected to take place early next year.

Prophetic Link:
“But when Sunday observance shall be enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God. He is paying homage to Rome and to the power which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. He is worshiping the beast and his image. As men then reject the institution which God has declared to be the sign of His authority, and honor in its stead that which Rome has chosen as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the sign of allegiance to Rome — ‘the mark of the beast.’ And it is not until the issue is thus plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive ‘the mark of the beast.’” Great Controversy, page 449.1.

Source References

• Sunday is “time for prayer and family” not shopping, Polish government reminds retailers