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CommerceStores open twelve Sundays per year: the plan is on the table
The federal consultation opens on the idea of passing from four to twelve the number of Sundays where stores can open. The cantons will be autonomous.
Often, there are not many souls who live on Sunday in the shopping streets, like here in the Flon in Lausanne.
20min/yweAnyone who has already set foot in the Migros of Geneva station on a Sunday knows that the request is there to shop for 7 days a week. Parliament is sensitive, even if it is not ready to generalize the Sunday openings. Friday, the Commission of the Economy of the Council of States completed its work and opened the official consultation on a simple idea: to pass from four to twelve the number of annual Sundays where the cantons can allow the opening of stores.
For the majority of the Commission, it is necessary to “strengthen shopping as a living leisure activity”. But above all, resolve a competitive bias. Let’s go back to our Migros at Geneva station, why can she open and not the others? Why can we shop online on Sunday but not in stores? And why can stores open in Zermatt, Interlaken or other tourist places but not in major cities?
The rules do not change
The federal project, initiated by the canton of Zurich, only seeks to increase the limit set to the cantons. From four, they will be able to spend twelve open Sundays. They are free to do it or not, they are free to set the schedules. “This is a moderate relaxation, with a federalist character,” says the Commission.
For the rest, the rules of the labor law will apply. For example, if we work on Sunday, we must have a recovery day the following week. And since we stay in the field of occasional openings and not every Sunday, it remains prescribed not to be able to work someone two Sundays in a row. Finally, the provision of the Labor Act which says that the Sunday work cannot be imposed on an employee who refuses him remains of bet. As for whether, in fact, it’s always respected, it’s another story.
A minority of the commission rises against this proposal. “Sunday without work strengthens social cohesion and should not be used to stimulate consumption,” she says. If the project was to pass anyway, it would then like to add a condition: to open only if the sector has, at the federal or cantonal level, a collective work agreement. “This would guarantee that the extension of the openings on Sunday does not affect the protection of staff and would strengthen the principle of social partnership, which has proven itself,” she said.
