Shops in Poland to be closed on Sunday?

In a rare sign of supra-party solidarity, a proposal to ban Sunday shopping enjoys the backing of PO, PiS, SLD, PSL and Solidary Poland MPs.

Agruments in favour include:
--Keeping holy the Lord's Day
--A day for home and family
--Cashiers and shop assistants also need Sunday off
--The ban is backied by the trade unions
--Shops are closed on Sunday in Germany, Austria and elsewhere
Arguments against include:
--Some people are busy all week and can shop only on Sunday
--Poland cannot afford to lose sales during a crisis.
Where do you stand on this?


wiadomosci24.pl/artykul/handel_w_niedziele_sklepy_powinny_byc_zamkniete_czy_otwarte_piszcie_271769.html

and various TV news bulletins

What about salaries? Plenty of people, especially students and others that cannot work during the week (for instance, housewives) rely on weekend jobs.


Many of them don't need Sunday off. In fact, quite the opposite - they need Sunday. I'm sure you go to supermarkets on Sundays : plenty of young people work in them.


Poland is officially a secular country.


No-one is forced to work on Sunday.


Who would like to ban working full stop, while receiving full salaries.


And these countries are richer than Poland. They have social welfare nets to catch people - Poland doesn't. A student who receives a social scholarship may very well depend on her weekend job to pay for food and transport, particularly in the cities.


Indeed. I know many self employed people who work on Saturdays too.


Even more so. When Poland is wealthy like Germany, then Poland can be like Germany.

Polonius, as a man of the Church, who do you think should feed those who rely on Sunday working to pay the bills? I see many young people working at weekends - who is going to replace their wages?

Incidentally, why should supermarkets be closed when police officers, firemen, university lecturers, doctors, nurses, drivers, ticket inspectors, security guards etc all work on Sunday?

Still cramming your religious views down other people's throats then.


Nope, they need the extra cash they are legally required to get for working on Sundays.


Got a source for that? The individual members of the unions are very much in favour of working on Sundays (they need the money).


Strange how you overlook the anti-Jewish origins of banning Sunday trading but hold up those states as models.

And this is the big thing - Poland doesn't have student loans, grants, etc to cover this. Nor does it have any decent amount of unemployment benefits available, so people need this work.

Another one - what about people that work in restaurants? Why aren't they allowed Sunday off, too?

Hm, I won't be crying if they close shops on Sunday however I think it's not a good idea. It creates work places and doesn't really harm anyone.

There are many walks of life where people are expected to work Sundays, barmen, teachers, taxi drivers, doctors, police, journalists. Should they all be forced not to work on Sunday even if they want to?

This is the vital thing : it creates employment. A country with 14% unemployment really can't go around legislating to increase that.


It does seem rather hypocritical to stop people working in supermarkets for religious/family reasons while denying many others the right to not work.

The craziest thing I've heard about this whole story is that "people won't lose money because the supermarket is shut on Sunday"....errr.

Well, we could just have a tax on people who want to observe Sunday as 'the Lord's day'. A flat-rate tax collected at the door of the church and then redistributed to everybody in Poland in order to compensate them for the potential income lost because some people think that Sunday should be a special day. That way people who don't care about what day is 'special' don't lose out and the people who do want it to be special can compensate those who lose out.

What does Polonius think?

Would he pay extra taxes to support those who lost out financially?

I'm not sure, I guess people who work in those places should be asked about this, since there are "two sides of the coin", as this article states:

wiadomosci24.pl/artykul/handel_w_niedziele_sklepy_powinny_byc_zamkniete_czy_otwarte_piszcie_271769.html?sesja_gratka=0511e120b98c4576409259be0c1c5af5
Fragment Translation:



What are you talking about, delph? If they tell you to work on Sunday, you work on Sunday, you have no other choice if you want to keep the job.


What are you talking about, Harry? For most Christians Sunday is "Lord's Day". On this day you aren't supposed to work. It is even reflected in the Polish name of the day: "niedziela":


From:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunday#Sunday_and_Sabbath

An excellent question. I'd much like to hear his thoughts on why he wishes to deny other people the basic human right that he himself has clearly made significant use of, i.e. the right to practise their profession on days of their choosing. If he is free to go research stories or write them up on Sundays (a right he clearly uses, as his posts here show), why does he want other people denied the right to choose whether to work on a day he deems 'special' (but not special enough for him to not work on it when he wants to)?

I think that shops and all businesses should be closed on Sunday.

Never worked on Sunday yourself?

But you can work elsewhere if you don't like it. The same freedom to work reflects in not having to work there, too. For instance - I know at least one person in my work works there (and not in a better paying job elsewhere) because she doesn't have to work weekends.

I think he's referring to why Germany/Austria enacted those laws to begin with.

Very strange actually - if Polonius believes that Sunday should be kept special, why is he in front of the computer on those days? Perhaps he would like to explain this to us?

Ironside - why only shops and businesses? What about taxi drivers? University lecturers? Bus drivers?

If people want Sunday to be kept special, then why on earth aren't they demanding the shut down of all but absolutely essential services?

lol
Where, delph? Cashiers in shopping malls work there not because they "like it", but because they need to eat and to eat you need money. People usually end up there because they couldn't find work elsewhere.


Sure, everybody's free to be jobless, homeless and hungry lol


And why did they enact those laws?

I dunno, is working in a supermarket really that bad? I used to work in one - I don't remember it being that terrible. The bar job I once had was far, far worse, or the awful summer I spent suffering in a fast food restaurant from hell with the worst staff and customers. Sure, it can be hard work, but it's not that terrible.


Going hungry is very possibly what might happen if they do this to some people, especially students.


You'd have to ask Harry, but he mentions it originating with anti-Jewish sentiment.

So they are the people who are most in need of the extra pay they get for working Sundays.

I can't understand why ppl are so concerned with shops being open on Sunday. So many jobs require ppl to work on Sunday and noone complains. So why shop assistants? I worked on Sunday and I can't remember any trauma connected with that expirience.

I don't understand the hypocrisy - why is it unacceptable for them, but not for others?

Someone cynical might suggest that influential restaurant / cinema owners might be putting pressure on some people...

Delph, where did I write whether working in a supermarket was bad or not?


I doubt that in case of students, tbh, they have families that support them and I doubt working on weekends only would make such a difference (to starve or not to starve).


I did, but he didn't answer.


Maybe they are, maybe they aren't. I honestly don't know. I'd have to ask someone working there. Did you?


Maybe it's because of supermarkets forcing people to work 7 days a week or sth (there was that case of Biedronka, I don't remember what was that all about anymore). They probably picked Sunday because it's traditionally considered a non-working day.


But I guess you had some other day free of work?

Are the expats still trying to tell people in Poland how they should be living their lives?


Poland is not officially a secular country. When was this stated? It has been known as a Catholic country for a long time. Even many people who do not live in Poland, when they meet a Polish person [let's say, in Britain], they assume that he or she is Catholic. When you ask why? ' Well because Poland is a Catholic country isn't it?' This tends to be the reply that you get. It would be correct as well.

No company can force an employee to work 7 days a week and any company that tried would soon find itself losing a labour court case.


Yes. And I also asked HR people from companies that work Sundays: more than a few have lottery systems for allocating Sunday hours due to more staff wanting the hours than there being hours to work.

Ah, I misread your comments, I read the "no other choice" = being bad.


It very well could do - I'm only going by the university here, but the social scholarship just about covers rent here. That weekend job would give them (let's say) 160zl a week - more than enough for transport and food.


Some people very might possibly be, especially in some of the worse supermarkets.


I don't think it's even legal to make people work 7 days a week unless they're on umowa zlecenie?


In my case, I used to get two weekdays off - I worked Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.


Oh dear WP...


It is not a Catholic country, as clearly stated in the Constitution. In fact, the utter absence of Catholicism from the Constitution should give you a very big hint as to what the country is.

In that case they acted against Polish labour law anyway.


In supermarkets they have days off as well.


In our constitution

I think we can call that one nil Lenka.

Wha? When did they do this nonsense? Poland was christened and now they are calling it secular in the constitution. This is not multiculty, mix and match, multicultarlism is our biggest strength, do what you want America. This is Poland!

This was written in our constitution for over 15 years

No, where we are is Poland: you are in London. Please stop telling us how our country should be when you can't even be bothered to live here.

Erm...you are English, and you live in England.

This Constitution was agreed for by the representatives of the people. It is the highest authority in the land, one that binds the people of Poland and the people living in Poland. We are duty bound to respect it, not to abuse it on internet forums or treat it like a disposable document that isn't worth anything. It is...


And I - as well as many people - do not appreciate someone calling it "nonsense".

So it was not long after communism ended then. During communism, they prayed [jak trwoga to do Boga], but once the threat was gone, It seems they forgot what was most important and declared Poland a secular country.


So if you live in a country then you must be a native? Is that your logic?


So if more Polish people moved in to the UK and eventually the constitution turned it in to a Catholic country, would it not bother you [and be honest, please]?