Vijesti: Parliament has adopted amendments to the Internal Trade Act, allowing the return of Sunday holidays for wholesale and retail stores. The decision was supported by 62 MPs and was supported by both the government and the opposition.
MPs supported the urgency of these changes, so they will enter into force on the day of publication in the Official Gazette.
The amendments to Article 35a of this Law submitted by the deputies of the Europe Now Movement (PES), require a non-working Sunday to protect the health of workers in wholesale and retail stores and their right to a weekly rest on public and other holidays.
Exceptions to Sunday opening hours will be pharmacies, specialized stores or kiosks, gas stations, markets, stands, shops, kiosks at bus and train stations, airports and ports, as well as those during events, festivals and fairs, wholesale warehouses…
The law also stipulates that the opening hours of the facility from Monday to Saturday will be determined by the retailer.
At the end of January, the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 35a of the Internal Trade Act, which prohibited shops from operating on Sundays and public and other holidays, was unconstitutional. The decision was officially published in the Official Gazette on February 12, which means that traders currently have the right to operate on Sundays.
The government previously appealed to traders not to open their businesses on Sundays until the ruling majority reintroduces Sunday as a non-working day.
A working week would increase prices.
PES MP Miloš Pižurica said that the fact that the return of the working week is necessary for the economy is often manipulated, but that there are no studies on this and that the data shows the opposite.
He stressed that returning to the working week could lead to price increases in stores and rising inflation.
“All the analysis of the impact of Sunday off on the tourist season has come down to the fact that tourists have to buy a bottle of water somewhere on Sundays. It is particularly worrying that we do not have an analysis of how Sunday off affects worker productivity. More attention should be paid to the working conditions of those who still do not have Sunday off, as North Macedonia has done,” he stressed.
Democratic Party of Socialists MP Nikola Rakočević emphasized that in 2019, the then government led by the DPS adopted this solution and exempted store workers from working on Sundays. He announced that he would support this measure again.
“Despite warnings, the majority allowed the Constitutional Court, which was filled by party members, to declare this law unconstitutional. The non-transparent way of electing Constitutional Court judges and one of the first decisions – declaring Sunday a non-working day – unconstitutional. This opened negotiations, some social partners, companies, are already talking a little bit about how it could be a working day in some months. It is gratifying that no space has been left for such trade…”, said Rakočević, adding that partial work on Sundays would put the focus on the economy instead of on citizens.
He said that projects are not being completed, that investors have been driven away, while the tax system is unpredictable…
A broader analysis is needed
New Serbian Democracy MP Jelena Božović said she would support Sunday as a non-working day, and that they were satisfied with the decision of shops not to work on this day, even though they have the right to do so. She stressed that the right to a weekly rest is a civilized right and that the economic impact of this measure has not been reduced.
FORCA Representative Ilir Chapuni added that the question is how those tourists and those who work on other days will trade on Sundays, so a broader economic and expert dialogue is needed – but that until then, Sunday should be brought back as a non-working day.
Pižurica stressed that none of the experts or the media in their analyses mention the non-working Sunday as a problem for domestic tourism. Čapuni stated that he would provide support, but that there are some anomalies.
The Socialist People’s Party said that the support protects workers’ rights and lives and provides time for their families – in other words, that people are more important than traffic. They also announced their support for this measure.
PES said that all laws should be adapted to the needs of citizens, that this measure is a value for building society, and that Sunday is not a privilege – it belongs to the family. Their MP Vasilije Čarapić emphasized that the introduction of Sunday off in 2019 was one of the rare victories of citizens over tycoons.
Čarapić stressed that the Constitutional Court called on them eight months ago to introduce a non-working Sunday model, because they would declare the decision unconstitutional. He stated that it was responsible because they did not want to lower the minimum rights that workers have – because everyone would criticize such a decision, so they were waiting for the court’s decision.
Democratic MP Boris Bogdanović emphasized that they defend the principle of a non-working Sunday while the Parliament must change the laws, because certain employers are rude and unfair to workers.
“Workers work without contracts and are not registered, mostly on Sundays, and formally they do not exist. If an injury occurs during unloading, people say, ‘You didn’t even work today’ – that’s a moral catastrophe. With this law, Montenegro ceases to be a place where a worker fights against his own job,” Bogdanović emphasized.
The club also announced that in the future they will provide all pre-legal conditions to compensate all workers who were losers during the transition period.
Price rise is the biggest problem
Civic Movement Ura MP Miloš Konatar said that Sunday should remain a non-working day because it is a guarantee that workers will have a day off.
“A non-working Sunday is not the biggest problem for the economy, the problem is the unstable business environment, tax increases, the work of inspection bodies, the inefficiency of public administration, the state of finances… The problem is the rise in prices, talk about what the electricity bills were like in January,” said Konatar.
The DPS reiterated that they proposed this law in 2019 and adopted it, in a half-empty hall, while a system of taxation of citizens is now being developed, in which a third works in public administration and the tourist season is left without a workforce.
They said that the same attention as trade workers is not paid to nurses and technicians, and that is why they have submitted an initiative to parliament. They claim that the salaries of these categories were increased by 15 percent and reduced by ten percent on the same day, which gave them 30 euros each.
They claim that citizens will evaluate the work of the parliamentary majority in the next elections and that it will not be good, and that after the work of the parliamentary majority, the country will be scorched.
Support for a non-working Sunday was also announced by Croatian Civic Initiative MP Adrijan Vuksanović.
Social Democrat MP Nikola Zirojević added that this situation has arisen because the Government and the parliamentary majority have done nothing to change the situation, but that he will support the introduction of a non-working Sunday.
Special Club MP Radinka Ćinćur proposed amending the Constitution if employers cannot be controlled otherwise.
Bosniak Party MP Edina Dešić said that shop workers previously worked for the minimum wage and longer working hours, and that the inspection cannot control this sector even today. She announced that she would vote for a non-working Sunday.
Our Comments:
Will this make it easier to impose other levels of Sunday laws?
Prophetic Link:
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16, 17