Notes from Poland, by Daniel Tilles: Poland’s justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro has turned to the Supreme Court in an effort to prevent shops from evading a ban on Sunday trading by offering reading clubs, travel services or equipment rental to exploit exemptions in the law.
The trading ban, which was introduced in 2018 by the government after being advocated by the Solidarity trade union and Catholic church, obliges shops to close on all but seven Sundays a year. However, it included a number of exemptions allowing certain types of businesses to remain open.
That has led many shops to find creative ways to stay open on Sundays. One such loophole was to offer postal services, though that was closed last year.
Other retailers have offered reading clubs, sports equipment rental or tourist services to take advantage of exemptions in the law for “establishments operating in the field of culture, sports, education, tourism and leisure”. One store even famously declared itself to be a bus station.
Many such firms have been taken to court for violating the trading ban. But a number of them have won those cases, with judges ruling that their claimed exemptions from the ban are valid.
Now, Ziobro – who as well as being justice minister is also public prosecutor general – has filed appeals to the Supreme Court against three firms who have won such cases in lower courts, reports retail industry news service Wiadomości Handlowe.
Two of them are chains of stores that began offering sports equipment for rental in their outlets. Another is a grocery store that created a reading club, tourist information point and travel agency on its premises.
Poland’s labour inspectorate feared that those firms winning their cases in court could lead other businesses to use the same tactics. It therefore asked Ziobro to use his right as prosecutor general to issue an appeal to the Supreme Court to set aside the previous rulings and require lower courts to consider the cases again.
“Courts misinterpreted the Act on Restricting Trade on Sundays” by allowing firms that “did not meet any of the exceptions provided for in the act” to employ staff on Sundays, Łukasz Łapczyński, spokesman for the National Prosecutor’s Office, told Wiadomości Handlowe.
In his submissions to the Supreme Court, Ziobro has argued that the law banning Sunday trading only allows a retail outlet to operate on Sundays if it is within a larger business exempted from the ban, and not vice versa. But lower courts have argued in their rulings that there is no such specification.
Prophetic Link:
“The dignitaries of church and state will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel all classes to honor the Sunday. The lack of divine authority will be supplied by oppressive enactments. Political corruption is destroying love of justice and regard for truth; and even in free America, rulers and legislators, in order to secure public favor, will yield to the popular demand for a law enforcing Sunday observance. Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet’s words: “The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Revelation 12:17. Great Controversy, 592.3
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