On September 17, Poland’s lower house (Sejm) of parliament passed a bill on the amendments to the law on Sunday trading ban. It concerns the act on the restriction of trade on Sundays and public holidays and on some other days which was enacted on March 1, 2018. The law was proposed by the trade union Solidarność, which says employees deserve Sundays off and found the support of the right-wing, populist, and pro-Catholic ruling party, Law and Justice (PiS). The influential Catholic church, to which more than 90% of Poles belong, welcomed the change.

If the recently-passed bill is supported by the upper house (Senat) of parliament, the so-far fictitious regulation may soon become a reality. The bill got the support of 272 MPs with 135 voting against and 37 abstaining. The amendment to the Act provides, inter alia, the prevailing activity principle, which will prevent the use of legal loopholes regarding the possibility to operate a postal activity by commercial agencies.

BILL DETAILS

According to the bill, only those entities which prove that they actually deal mainly with postal services and not the retail trade will be able to operate on Sundays — the revenues from postal services will have to account for over 50% of the other income of such an agency.

Currently, due to the fact that there is no set revenue limit, around twenty retail chains are already legally operating on non-trading Sundays. On this day it is possible to shop in local shops, among others, Żabka, ABC, Groszek, Carrefour Express, Strokrotka Express, Euro Sklep, supermarkets, e.g. Intermarché, Polo Market, Kaufland, discount stores including Biedronka, Lidl, hypermarkets such as four Carrefour stores and DIY stores like Bricomarché. The possibility to open such stores on Sundays results from their agreements for the provision of postal services (i.e. sending and receiving parcels) concluded with the state postal service Poczta Polska or private parcel locker giant Inpost.

In order to proceed with the verification of the prevailing activity of each commercial agency, the entrepreneurs will be forced to keep two separate records. One record will be kept for the prevailing business activity and the rest for all the others. A severe punishment awaits entrepreneurs who continue to try to avoid the new rules. If a store does not comply with the regulations or does not keep records under the new conditions, it may receive a fine of PLN 100,000.

OVER 3,600 SMALL SHOPS DISAPPEARED

The bill also provides some facilitation for the people who run small, local shops. The provision regarding the allowance for the store to be open on Sunday in case it is operated by the owner or a member of his immediate family has been extended. The legislators extended this group to include siblings, grandparents, and grandchildren. The entrepreneur will be able to use their help only if these family members are not regular employees of the store on a daily basis.

Janusz Śniadek, the proposer of the bill, referring to the present regulations and the behavior of many entrepreneurs, has stated that: “This pathology began to insult the dignity of the state.” When assessing the effects of the trade restrictions on Sundays which was introduced in 2018, Marzena Okła-Drewnowicz, an opposition MP from the Civic Platform (PO) party and a member of the parliamentary committee on social policy and family, indicated that according to data from the development ministry for the years 2019 and 2020, more than 3,600 small retail stores disappeared from the market, while the number of discount stores and supermarkets increased. She noted that the Sunday trade ban meant that Poles began to shop more often on Fridays and Saturdays in large retail chains and at the same time they reduced shopping in small shops which is the reason why they gradually bankrupted.

TRADE UNIONS BACK THE BILL

The bill has been strongly sup¬ported by the trade unions, in particular Solidarność. “It was an extremely important vote for hun¬dreds of thousands of trade work¬ers, whose employers are again trying to deprive them of the right to Sunday rest with their families. We are glad that our appeal was successful and we managed to convince MPs from various political spectrum to support this amend¬ment”, says Alfred Bujara, head of the trade section of Solidarność. In the days preceding the vote in the Sejm, the representatives of Solidarność sent an appeal for supporting the amendment to all deputies. Trade unions also visited deputies' offices and spoke with many MPs.

“Although employees are happy to get their Sundays back, they do not understand why they will have to wait so long for it. The argument that the change of regulations will disrupt commercial networks in a short time absolutely does not appeal to us. The same retailers did not have any reluctance to circum¬vent the regulations. They did not care that by taking free Sundays away from employees overnight, they disturbed their family life,” points out Bujara.

The new regulations will not be in force in the next coming weeks. They will be put to a vote by the Senat. In the event of any further amendments or rejection of the bill, it will return to Sejm. After recognizing Senat's proposals or rejecting Senate's veto, the new law will be signed by Andrzej Duda, Poland’s president. Further to one of the amendments included in the bill prolonging the vacatio legis, if Duda signs the act, the new regula¬tions will come into effect not 14 days after its publication but on the first day of the month following three months after its publication in the Journal of Laws. There are many indications that this will not happen until 2022.

Anna Kolesińska

Family Business Initiative Association (IFR) is a Warsaw-based alliance that groups entrepreneurs who own family businesses, as well as experts and scientists who support this community. Anna Kolesińska, an advocate, specializes in commercial law with a particular emphasis on the areas of corporate and contract law.