The survey was conducted on March 11-15, covering 1,000 respondents. The findings were presented on Wednesday on the occasion of the International Day of Families.
Eighty-seven percent of women and 77% of men advocate work-free Sundays, while young people are more opposed to work-free Sundays than older people, said Promocija Plus director Agan Behic.
There are more advocates of work-free Sundays among people with medium or low-level education, among those with lower incomes, in the Dalmatia and Slavonia regions, in large families and in villages. In the Zagreb and northern Adriatic regions, more respondents were against work-free Sundays.
Advocates for work-free Sundays say Sunday is a rest and family day, while opponents say work should not be banned and that Croatians have to work as Croatia is a tourist country, but they point out that work on Sundays is not paid adequately.
The survey shows that 68% of respondents shop on Sundays, including 18% who do so every Sunday, and that 75% do so to buy food.
Petir said their goal was to encourage the government and parliament to pass laws that would provide for work-free Sundays. The survey shows that citizens want this, not just the people who work on Sundays, she added.
Croatian Sunday Alliance founder Boze Vuleta said they had sent the Economy Ministry a proposal to resolve this matter in April. The Alliance proposes that shops work Mondays through Fridays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., that they be closed on public holidays, and that employers choose five Sundays a year when their shops will be open.
The Alliance said that stores at railway stations, airports and ferry ports, national parks, petrol stations and rest stops on motorways would be exempt form the work-free Sundays rule.
The president of the Commercial Trade Union of Croatia, Zlatica Stulic, supported the proposal. "We are not for bans but for bringing order and the law is the only way to resolve this," she said.