Is there a shopping Sunday today? We will shop there

In March, the seventh anniversary of the introduction of the Act on the ban on Sunday trade. Initially, there was a partial trade limitation on the last day of the week – from March to December 2018, the stores were open on the first and last Sunday of the month, in 2019 only on the last one. Eight commercial Sundays have been in force from this year. It is about the last Sunday of January, April, June and August, as well as Sunday before Easter and three Sundays preceding Christmas. We have had seven commercial Sundays in the last four years. The changes were introduced by the amendment to the Act on Fire Days adopted at the end of last year by parliament, thanks to which Christmas Eve will be a day off from work, but an additional trading Sunday will apply in December.

Trade Sunday in two months

Today, there is no commercial Sunday. For such a day we have to wait two more months, because we will be able to do Sunday shopping only in mid -April, a week before Easter.

Just because there is no commercial Sunday today does not mean that we will not do shopping anywhere. The Act provides for just over 30 exclusions. Stores can be run by stores where the owner stands behind the counter. Today, among others:

• gas stations,

• kiosks,

• restaurants,

• post offices,

• florists,

• Shops located at stations, airports.

For breaking the trade ban, there is a risk of from PLN 1,000 to even PLN 100,000. PLN penalty, and with persistent violation of the regulations – the penalty of restriction of liberty.

Changes after the presidential election?

For over half a year in the Sejm there has been a Polish 2050 project, assuming the liberalization of Sunday trade. The project provides, among others, Two commercial Sundays in the month (first and third), i.e. de facto return to the rules from the beginning of the Act. A double salary would be entitled to work on the last day of the week, and the employer would be required to appoint the employee a day off (from six days before six days after the day of work on Sunday). So far, the project has been stuck in parliamentary committees. He spoke about his fate a few days ago on Radio Zet

– There is a chance to return trade on Sunday, but this is blocked by a sick regulation. I have to work on this together with MP Katarzyna Ueberhan, head of the Social Policy Committee, which delays the trial. The left thinks that by blocking this topic, he will score political points, but I don’t think so it was – said the head of the Sejm Economy Committee.

Polish MP 2050 also has no doubt that President Andrzej Duda will block all changes, so – as Petru said – “it can wait for the presidential election.”