The Union of Free Trade Unions (USSCG) will continue to insist, not only on preserving the non-working Sunday in trade, but also in all other sectors, whose nature of activity does not imply continuous work, the union organization announced.
The USSCG told the Mina-business agency that the right to limited working hours and a day off during the week are constitutional and legal rights of all employees and must be protected as such.
The Constitutional Court today repealed Article 35a of the Internal Trade Act, i.e. Sunday non-working days in shops, as unconstitutional.
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The USSCG reminded that social partners, namely representative trade unions and employers' associations, have been conducting intensive negotiations on amendments to the Internal Trade Act since 2020.
They said that they were aware of the possibility that the epilogue before the Constitutional Court would be like this and that, as a responsible organization, they approached negotiations and found a solution that would be acceptable to all parties, primarily employees, and then employers, with an emphasis on small business owners and the current needs of the economy.
"With enormous effort and sacrifice, we found a compromise solution that was unanimously adopted by the Social Council and was supposed to be tested for just one year, and which would guarantee trade employees an even greater degree of protection of the right to a day off during the week. However, the compromise proposal of the social partners did not receive attention, nor did it meet with interest, from either the Government or the MPs in the Parliament," the USSCG announced.
Even the deadline that the Constitutional Court gave the Government to find a solution that would prevent such a final decision from being made was not, as they added, an alarm for further processing of the compromise reached at the level of social partners.
"The social partners have shown responsibility on this issue in the previous period, not only by reaching a compromise solution that would be a test, or time-limited, but also by prescribing the right to an 80 percent increase in wages for working on Sundays, which increase was agreed upon in 2022 by signing the new General Collective Agreement," said the USSCG.
Now, as they assessed, the key role and responsibility of the Government and MPs in the Parliament is to react promptly and, taking into account the proposals of social partners, who are most called upon to define this issue, adopt amendments to the Law on Internal Trade and demonstrate responsibility for protecting the rights of employees in trade, for whom, as has long been clear, general labor regulations that guarantee the right to weekly rest as one of the fundamental rights do not apply.
"The period until the publication of the Constitutional Court's decision in the Official Gazette is a period that once again reminds us of the urgency of resolving this issue," the Union added.
In the event that the compromise proposal of the social partners is not processed and implemented by the time the Constitutional Court's decision is published in the Official Gazette, the USSCG calls on all employers in the trade sector to continue organizing work and business in the manner they have been doing since October 20, 2019, when the non-working week was introduced, thereby demonstrating a responsible attitude towards employees, their employment rights, working conditions, and health and safety at work.
"Also, until a final solution is found, we will insist that inspection bodies be fully focused on the trade sector in order to protect the right of employees to a day off during the week, namely on Sundays, as prescribed by Article 76 of the Labor Law," the USSCG stated.
The compromise proposal of the social partners included, among other things, the permission to operate wholesale and retail trade on Sundays exclusively in the period from June 1 to August 31 and from December 1 to January 31 in only one shift and in only one sales facility on the territory of one municipality, in case traders own multiple sales facilities.
"According to the compromise solution, traders would be obliged to notify the competent inspection body about a retail outlet that will operate on Sundays and during working hours, whether it will operate only in the first or only in the second shift, no later than 15 days before the start of trading," the Union stated.
They added that it is particularly important that retailers would be obliged to allow employees who work on Sundays during the season to use the first following Saturday as a weekly rest day, and for working on Sundays they would be entitled to an 80 percent increase in basic salary. Such a solution would be, in accordance with the agreement of social partners and the relevant ministry, accompanied by increased inspection supervision and continuous communication of inspection bodies with representative trade union centers for the purpose of joint monitoring of the implementation and compliance with the exceptions defined in this way regarding the operation of stores during the season.
"Such a model would be defined by law as limited in time to only one summer or winter season, after which the social partners and the Government would review the effects and, depending on their impact on employees, the business and the economy, reach a compromise on continuing its validity or finding a new model," concluded the USSCG.
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