Slovenian commerce workers fight against Sunday opening

UNI Commerce visits newest affiliate:
Slovenian commercial workers fight against Sunday opening

Slovenia's commerce trade union, the newest UNI Commerce affiliate, is engaged in a hard struggle against Sunday opening. Large supermarkets have opened the way to seven days trading in the regions bordering to Austria and Italy. As the country is small, this affects also other parts of commerce and threatens the working conditions of the Slovenian retail workers.

There will not be much time for commercial workers' families to enjoy the tranquillity of Ljubljana's river front if Mercator and other large retailers introduce 7 days of 7 shopping in this Alpine country.

Alex Rüdig of UNI Commerce visited Slovenia this week, for talks with the union's executive committee. She also participated in a television show on the national TV channel, where shop opening hours were discussed.

During her visit, Alex had a possibility to exchange views with Zoran Jovankovic, the general manager of Mercator. The Ljubljana-based multinational retailer is fast establishing itself in the region's countries.

- Our most urgent problems are shop opening hours and Sunday working hours, says Sandi Bartol, the commerce union's general secretary. Trading hours have increased by 16 per cent during the last year, but personnel numbers have grown only one per cent.

- In Slovenia, Mercator is at the forefront when it comes to extensive trading hours, Sandi says. Other large companies are now following its example, including French multinational Leclerc which actually started its Slovenian operations two years ago, respecting the local standards. Now, the company has followed Mercator and opened its doors for Sunday trading.

Sandi Bartol warns that Slovenia's excessive shop opening hours can spread also to other countries in the region. There is a need for closer cooperation between the commerce trade unions to protect the commercial workers' employment conditions.

Sandi Bartol fears that de-regulation will spread also to the other countries in the region. Mercator is operating in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and will soon open its first stores in Serbia. He sees a stronger network between the commercial workers' trade unions in the region's countries as a necessary response to these developments.

The Slovenian commerce trade union is now collecting signatures to force a referendum on shop opening hours. For this, 40,000 names are needed - within the ten first days, 5,000 Slovenians have already signed the petition. This campaign was launched by the union's Congress two weeks ago.

Slovenia is among the countries that are in line to become European Union member states in 2004. Of all the candidate countries, it has the highest standard of living, surpassing also that of Greece and Portugal.

Recently, the European social partners for commerce held a round table meeting on the enlargement, with the Slovenian commerce employers and the commercial workers' trade union. The union was formally affiliated to UNI a few weeks ago.