The ban on the work of shops on Sundays has been a talking point for quite some time now. With some being firmly for the idea of keeping Sunday a free day on which shops don’t operate, and others, primarily Croatian traders, being entirely against it.
Many Croatian traders are constantly claiming that such a move further damages an already less than ideal economic situation and that this will only become exacerbated in the uncertain times we’re currently living in owing to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Croatian economy, much like every other economy across the globe, has been suffering the blows of the coronavirus crisis. Many argue that forcing shops to shut their doors on Sundays will do absolutely nothing to help get the economy back on its feet again, and Croatian traders are growing more and more frustrated.
As Novac/Ivanka Toma writes on the 16th of May, 2020, the Croatian Employers’ Association (HUP) and the Trade Association addressed the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of the Interior with a proposal to relax the measures which are still in place in attempt to slow down the spread of the new coronavirus, COVID-19.
Specifically, this group of Croatian traders demanded that the ban on the operation of shops on Sundays and non-working days be lifted, and that what is known as the ”disinfection break” also be lifted.
These Croatian traders pointed out that banning work on Sundays isn’t an adequate anti-epidemic measure because restricting work on Sundays only works to significantly burden other working days, especially Mondays, Saturdays and Fridays, and creates the potential for much larger crowds of customers on the other days of the week.
They also pointed out that due to inaction, a smaller number of working hours are actually being realised in total due to the ban of shops operating on Sundays, which will have the consequence that traders will need to start firing their staff.
They also stated that the one-hour break required to disinfect the store has no effect because after that break, queues get formed outside of the shop doors and the level of pressure on staff working at cash registers increases. They also warned that such measures don’t apply to those in the caterering and hospitality industry, to hotels, or to those carrying out other personal services. However, this group of Croatian traders believe that it is more than likely that nothing will come of their proposal.
”We’ve already communicated with the public and employers about why Sunday has been set up as a non-working day. By extending our working hours during the week, we got more working hours and two shifts, we wanted to relax certain economic activities on the other side of the scale, and on the other hand, we wanted to prevent the spread of the virus. Every day we’re looking at the measures and the situation and the possibilities we have for balancing that scale,” said the director of the CNIPH, Krunoslav Capak, in response to the question about the proposals of Croatian traders.
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