Constitutional Court will issue rulings on the Sunday trading restriction legislation
13:35
July 27 has been set as the date for the announcement of the ruling on the regulations introducing, in principle, a ban on trading on Sundays, the website of the Constitutional Court stated.
The original deadline for the announcement of the ruling, in this case, was set for 24 March this year. However, this date was then canceled. Now the Constitutional Tribunal announced on its website that the new deadline for the public announcement of the decision was set for Tuesday, 27 July at 10.30 a.m.
The work in the parliament on the law on restriction of trade on Sundays and holidays and on some other days was completed on January 10, 2018. President Andrzej Duda signed the legislation on January 30, 2018, and the law came into force on March 1, 2018.
The Lewiatan Confederation’s motion, in this case, was already submitted to the TC in May 2018. In general, the motion challenged four provisions of the law – including the key article stating that “on Sundays and holidays in commercial establishments, trading and performing activities related to trading, entrusting an employee or worker to perform work in trading and perform activities related to trading shall be prohibited.”
As indicated in the motion, this regulation “does not meet the criteria of permissible interference in the freedom of work (...), since it has effects that cannot be reconciled with the image of a democratic state under the rule of law, i.e. it leads to group lay-offs in certain industries, causes a reduction of income or an increase in the amount of work on previously unpaid days, as well as has a discriminatory effect, creating a group of privileged employers and employees.
Lewiatan also challenged another provision of the Act, which - according to the organization - “differentiates employees as to the freedom of performing work on certain days. This is the article listing exceptions to the ban on Sunday trading. The law allows for a number of exceptions to the ban, such as at gas stations, and when, for example, the predominant activity of the establishment is the trade in flowers, souvenirs or devotional items, newspapers, public transportation tickets, tobacco products, gambling coupons, the sale of bakery products and in commercial establishments in which the predominant activity is catering.
