PwC: Sunday shopping ban will lead to revenue, job losses

Consulting firm PwC said in a statement on Tuesday that Poland’s proposed ban on retail trade on Sundays could cost the county nearly PLN 10 billion and eliminate 36,400 jobs, the Polish press reported. It also indicated that a ban would lower government tax revenues by PLN 1.8 billion. “The decline in turnover, even with the transfer of the majority of purchases on other days and so could take up to PLN 9.6 billion. This can happen as a result of [a decline in] purchasing decisions are taken spontaneously,” the statement read. The report, which was commissioned by the Polish Council of Shopping Centres, indicated that service-sector companies could suffer because a decrease in demand for services on Sunday resulting from the ban would negatively impact on such things as staff rotation and client growth. “Many service industries do not have the possibility to transfer rotation to the other [days] as such. Protection and cleaning services [would] lose almost all of Sunday's turnover. This leads to a decrease in demand for work performed on Sunday, corresponding to more than 36 thousand people,” the statement added. In September, the Solidarity trade union submitted a draft bill to Parliament which proposed the closure of shopping centres and supermarkets on Sunday, but stipulated that gas stations would remain open. “Poland’s job market is in a really great shape,” Marek Lewandowski, a spokesman for Solidarity, told Forbes. “One shouldn’t believe in those alarming voices saying this will lead to job cuts and losses. They have been proved completely false.” A decade ago, Poland banned shopping on 13 holidays, resulting in 40,000 job losses, according to employer’s groups.