May 17, 2021 - The work-free Sundays, except for 16 Sundays a year, is good for Croatian families, and we want to gain support for that move through intensive dialogue, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday after a meeting of the Economic-Social Council (GSV) and talks with unions and employers.

"We believe that this move, which is in the spirit of our tradition and culture and is good for the nucleus of the Croatian society, and that is the family, and that is why we are going ahead with this proposal," Plenković told reporters after the meeting. 

We are conducting intensive dialogue to support this proposal that is balanced and more appropriate than various proposals were in the past, he added, referring to the proposal for regulating work on Sunday.

Plenković underscored that the proposal banning Sunday trading except for 16 Sundays took account of Croatia as a tourist destination, economy, and consumer customs. On the other hand, it created a balance between working and private life.

The GSV discussed the action plan to implement the European pillar of social rights and the EU's revised directives for regional grants.

"In the past fifteen months, with its timely, strong, and firm engagement, with the unavoidable and irreplaceable role of the state, Croatia has managed to save jobs. HRK 10.5 billion has been allocated for earnings for 680,000 workers and 120,000 employees, which helped them bridge over the crisis and for the total number of insurees to be higher than in 2020 and even in 2019," said Plenković.

With the coronavirus epidemic waning, Croatia will move from the job-keeping phase to creating new jobs, he underscored.

Speaking about regional support, Plenković announced an increase as of 1 January 2022.

In the Pannonian area of Croatia and its north, grants for entrepreneurs will be increased from 25% to 50%, in Adriatic Croatia from 25% to 40%, and from 25% to 35% in Zagreb.

"It seems that all regions are winners, and the benefits to business subjects, businesses, and investors will be higher," he underscored.

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May 8, 2021 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Porto on Friday said that work-free Sundays and that the proposed amendments to the Commerce Act would allow shops to open on a certain number of Sundays were necessary to help strike a balance between work and family life".

The Croatian government is preparing amendments to the Commerce Act to regulate Sunday shopping days per year. The initiative is to restrict Sunday trading days to 16 in a year.

"Our initiative is not contrary to our plans to have a higher number of employees, ensure higher economic growth as well as to have social inclusivity," Plenković told the press in front of the Porto congress hall where the EU Social Summit was held.

The draft amendments on regulating the number of Sunday shopping days per year were presented to junior partners in the ruling coalition last Thursday. Plenković said that the partners supported the initiative.

He also said that surveys and opinion polls had shown that most Croatians supported work-free Sundays.

I can't see that this would cause any problem for companies that consider working Sundays as an important day for them. For instance, the trading volume is well distributed on the day before or the day after in other countries. This is something which other countries already have, and it functions, he added.

Retailers have no unified position on non-working Sunday 

In early 2020, the association of retail and wholesale traders within the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) said that it had not defined a unanimous position on Sunday trading; however, members of the association agreed those working on Sunday should be remunerated appropriately.

HGK noted then that there was no uniform stance on regulating Sunday trading; however, all traders agree that more care for workers is needed and that working on Sunday should be paid more. They recommend that the number of Sundays stores would be open during the year be restricted.

The president of the association, Ivica Katavic, who is at the helm of the supervisory board of the KTC supermarket chain, said then that KTC had decided to stay closed on Sundays. In the meantime, its turnover had increased.

In mid-May2020, the Pevex household and hardware retail chain called for Sunday trading to be regulated by law, adding that it advocates non-trading Sundays similar to Austria.

The Croatian Employers' Association (HUP) said this past Friday, in a comment on the announced restriction of Sunday work in the retail sector, that retailers did not have a unified position on that. Still, they thought the pandemic was not a good moment for introducing any bans on work.

The pandemic is definitely not a good moment to ban work in any sense since retail still hasn't recovered from the lockdown and drop in sales caused by restrictions, HUP said.

On Friday, the Lidl retail chain said responding to "Lidl Croatia is not in principle against the idea on work-free Sunday, having in mind the government's initiative that envisages 16 Sunday shopping days a year."

Lidl also called for adopting the necessary regulations to create equal conditions and fair competition in the retail sector.

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