ZAGREB, Sept 8 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian Catholic charity Caritas, Archbishop Ivan Prendja, and the director of the Institute for the Culture of Peace, Bozo Vuleta, presented Prime Minister Ivica Racan on Monday with a
petition calling for a ban on work on Sundays.
ZAGREB, Sept 8 (Hina) - The president of the Croatian Catholic
charity Caritas, Archbishop Ivan Prendja, and the director of the
Institute for the Culture of Peace, Bozo Vuleta, presented Prime
Minister Ivica Racan on Monday with a petition calling for a ban on
work on Sundays. #L#
The petition, containing 300,000 signatures, calls on the
government to amend the Commerce Act so as to ban shops from working
on Sundays and to order that shop assistants may work only one
Sunday a month.
The government believes that work on Sundays should be discouraged
rather than banned, Racan said, adding that additional measures
should be considered in this matter.
The government's public relations office issued a statement after
the meeting saying that both sides agreed that work on Sunday could
be discouraged through the strict enforcement of the law and
inspections and by punishing employers who violate the law.
Prendja told reporters that Racan supported the initiators of the
petition, and that the government would take steps to discourage
work on Sundays.
The representatives of Caritas and the Institution for the Culture
of Peace also presented the prime minister with a letter explaining
their initiative. The aim of the letter was to draw public attention
to violations of human and religious rights and grave breaches of
existing regulations, including the right to weekly leave and
allowances for work on holidays.
"Because of the existing practice, tens of thousands of citizens
have been exploited for years, and in numerous cases have been
reduced to some sort of slave status," the letter said.
The Labour Act defines Sunday as a holiday, but in 2001 the Ministry
of the Economy passed rules on shops' working hours making it
possible for local government units to take their own decisions,
which has resulted in violations of the Labour Act.
Caritas and the Institute for the Culture of Peace said their
initiative had received support from the public, employers, trade
unions, the Chamber of Crafts, the Merchant Guild, parliamentary
deputies, the Ministry of Crafts, and the Ministry of Tourism.
The initiative to ban shops from working on Sundays will be in
parliamentary procedure as of mid-September.
(hina) vm