BY VANESSA GERA, Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A new Polish law banning almost all trade on Sundays has taken effect, with large supermarkets and most other retailers closed for the first time since liberal shopping laws were introduced in the 1990s after communism's collapse.(...)
The law was proposed by a leading trade union, Solidarity, which says employees deserve Sundays off. It found the support of the conservative and pro-Catholic ruling party, Law and Justice, whose lawmakers passed the legislation. The influential Catholic church, to which more than 90 percent of Poles belong, has welcomed the change.
Among the Poles who see it as a good step toward returning a frazzled and overworked society to a more a more traditional lifestyle is 76-year-old Barbara Olszewska, who did some last-minute shopping Saturday evening in Warsaw.
She recalled growing up in the Polish countryside with a mother who was a full-time homemaker and a father who never worked on Sundays.
"A family should be together on Sundays," Olszewska said after buying some food at a local Biedronka, a large discount supermarket chain.
BY VANESSA GERA, Associated Press
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A new Polish law banning almost all trade on Sundays has taken effect, with large supermarkets and most other retailers closed for the first time since liberal shopping laws were introduced in the 1990s after communism's collapse.(...)
The law was proposed by a leading trade union, Solidarity, which says employees deserve Sundays off. It found the support of the conservative and pro-Catholic ruling party, Law and Justice, whose lawmakers passed the legislation. The influential Catholic church, to which more than 90 percent of Poles belong, has welcomed the change.
Among the Poles who see it as a good step toward returning a frazzled and overworked society to a more a more traditional lifestyle is 76-year-old Barbara Olszewska, who did some last-minute shopping Saturday evening in Warsaw.
She recalled growing up in the Polish countryside with a mother who was a full-time homemaker and a father who never worked on Sundays.
"A family should be together on Sundays," Olszewska said after buying some food at a local Biedronka, a large discount supermarket chain.