TRADE unions are planning to prepare a new law that would abolish shopping on Sunday and at night and would limit the working hours in Slovak shops from 6:00 to 22:00.
Slovak Church officials have been calling for a ban on shopping on Sundays and Church holidays for years.
Daniela Meruňková, deputy chairwoman of the trade unions, said to the Slovak daily Pravda on January 7 that her unions will begin to talk to Slovak parliamentary parties about the new law.
It is possible that some opposition parties might support such legislation, as might the Christian Democrats (KDH), who earlier supported the Church's calls for closing shops on Sundays.
Meruňková said that shop employees often worked very long hours and that their working conditions were poor.
Head of the Trade Association Pavol Konštiak said that the industry's 300,000 workers were to a certain extent discriminated against because of the unregulated working days and working hours, but he insisted that shops had to provide customers with their expected level of services.
