Opening the issue of work on Sundays is a tougher nut to crack than the HDZ Government, led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, thought – Vecernji.hr writes.

According to the article, for most of last year, Economy Minister Darko Horvat sought to reach consensus among the social partners, and for April he also announces the official start of a public debate on the proposal that is being made.

It seems that Croatia would not, however, go for a complete ban of work on Sundays, as insisted by the trade union leadership, with clear support from the top of the Church, but would allow shopkeepers to choose 12, 14, or 15 Sundays a year on which they would work.

In the tourist areas, the working Sundays would certainly those during the summer, while on the continent they would concentrate around the end of the year and possibly periods of high seasonal sales. Anyway, Sunday will also be a hot political topic in an election year around which only some parties have so far declared their opinion.

The stores employ more than 200 thousand people, of whom about 135 thousand work in retail. Sunday mostly affects women because they dominate the industry. Although the talk of a new regulation of work on Sundays has come out of politics, it has in some ways been fueled by employers who are finding it harder to get workers. Food chains would not be overly unhappy if they were banned from work on Sundays, but large shopping centers are firmly against bans because they have the highest traffic on Sundays.

For example, Emmezeta director Slobodan Skolnik clearly opposed the ban, suggesting that employees have two Sundays a month free and that the work on Sundays is paid 50 percent more – Vecernji.hr reports.