I had enough. EVERY post that is off- topic goes to the bin.
This one won't be, promise :)
Not more important, but more exploited. At least that's my guess.
In my humble opinion, I'd guess that workers in smaller shops are more open to being exploited. They have longer hours, they are unlikely to be able to actually take proper breaks from work and they're absolutely unlikely to be able to take holidays at their convenience. The PIP (and others) would also have far less interest in them - who cares about small shops when you can go and bust the big chains (and get publicity for doing so)?
And could you, delph, tell me why shops in Belgium are closed on Sunday and none of you has any problem with that and Harry isn't insulting Belgians because of that?
Honestly, I think it's every bit as idiotic. Belgium has (like most Western capitals) problems with unemployment among youths - the shops being open on Sunday might help a little bit with that. And yes, the idiotic Sunday trading laws in England are also - in my view - completely stupid. Trust me, I've called Germany more than enough names when in Berlin for the weekend and praised how so-called "Catholic" Poland has far better laws.
I don't know if you've ever been to the border towns, but they are packed on Sundays with Czechs/Germans/etc. There are some huge shopping areas in places like Zgorzelec and Lubin designed specifically to cater for them - I was in Zgorzelec a couple of Sundays ago, and the place was absolutely rammed full of Germans doing their shopping.
I know noone, absolutely NOONE, who would like working on Sundays!
Who wouldn't like the extra money? :) I was never really bothered by what days I had free, except always wanting to be free on Fridays because of parties on Thursdays.
As for Polish labour law, I've just watched an interview with a Polish trade unionist on Polsat Biznes channel. He said 52% of employers in Poland brake the law (big foreign companies included).
Quite believable, but like Harry says, the PIP often specifically go into workplaces to find idiotically small faults. I used to work full time teaching in Allegro when they had one such inspection - and they were (according to the law then in place) breaking the law by not having any windows that could be opened. The fact that they had two separate climate control systems wasn't enough - they wanted windows that could be opened, even though they were in a tower block...
I had to deal with them in my work as well - they really were nitpicking over some exceptionally stupid things. I'm quite surprised that it's only 52% that are breaking the law in this respect.
Btw, did you know that Polish word for Saturday - "sobota" - comes from Jewish "Sabbath"? I don't think I realised that! lol It's the same with Spanish sábado, Italian sabato, Czech sobota, Russian суббота (subbota), Croatian subota.
No, I didn't, but interesting :) Shows the massive influence that Jewish culture had, I guess.
I know ordinary Poles, Harry, who work in factories and supermarkets, etc. and who put up with all kinds of exploitation and are afraid to even complain to trade unions in fear of losing their jobs.
One of the problems in Poland is with the labour code itself. It's completely understandable that if you have umowa o prace and have to put up with some rubbish working conditions - you'd rather have that than work under umowa zlecenie in a better place. Having said that, I also know how Solidarność behave - and they cannot be taken seriously.
I can't work out why trade unions would be against people working, however...