In December, a retail employee will not be able to work more than two Sundays – assumes one of the amendments introduced on Thursday by the Senate to the amendment to the act on Christmas Eve free from work. The regulation will now return to the Sejm.
86 senators voted in favor of the amendment to the act on non-working days with the amendment, no one was against, and one senator abstained.
The Senate's amendments assume, among other things, that: in December, a trade employee will not be able to work more than two Sundaysbut there will be three commercial ones.
Earlier, the Senate rejected the PiS amendments that assumed a return to the original solutions to make two working Sundays in December, instead of three. Another amendment envisaged that the changes would enter into force later this year.
Christmas Eve is a day off from work
The amendment to the Act passed by the Sejm last week provides for the establishment of December 24 is a day off for all employeesincluding employees of commercial establishments.
The project was submitted to the Sejm by the Left, which wanted the changes to come into force this year. At the meeting of the parliamentary committee for economy and development as well as social policy and family, amendments by the Civic Coalition were introduced to the project so that the new regulations would come into force on February 1, 2025, and that three Sundays before Christmas Eve would be commercial.
Currently, in accordance with the Act on Restriction of Trade on Sundays and Holidays, Christmas Eve is a working day until 2 p.m.
In the Senate debate of the Minister of Family, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk noted that a free Christmas Eve unites, above all, Polish society across divisions. She pointed out that many entrepreneurs shorten their working hours on this day anyway. The minister described the amendment tabled by the Senate as a “good example of compromise”.
Main photo source: Grzegorz Michałowski/PAP