Zagreb, April 28, 2003 (IKA) — Croatian Caritas and the Croatian Institute for the Culture of Peace—Split, have inaugurated a campaign: “Stores Working on Sundays — Commerce in Human Life,” including the signing of a petition demanding the generation prohibition of stores operating on Sundays and holidays, with the support of the Croatian Conference of Bishops, the Mercantile Union of Croatia, the Association of Independent Unions of Croatia, the Mercantile Association of Croatia, the Mercantile Association of the Association of Employers, and Independent Croatian Unions. The public collection of the signatures will begin symbolically on Labor Day, May 1, and will continue for fifteen days. The campaign and consolidation of the voices of Croatian citizens will attempt to influence the Croatian Parliament and Government to pass legislation to prohibit stores from working on Sundays and holidays. The occasion for such a demand is that current laws are incompletely formulated, thus permitting the violation of fundamental human and labor rights, since many workers work all seven days of the week, and the majority of them are not paid for this work. They are being deprived of the right to spend at least one day per week with their families and religious persons are being deprived of the right to fulfill their religious obligations. At a press conference held on Monday, April 28, in the secretariat of the Croatian Conference of Bishops in Zagreb, the head of Croatian Caritas, Prof. Mario Bebic, announced that the goal of the campaign would be to call attention to the 40,000 workers who are being deprived of their right to a free day during the week, and who are afraid to exercise their rights due to the justified fear of losing their jobs. He announced that the campaign will include eighty Croatian cities and 1,500 parishes throughout Croatia. In addition to the collection of signatures, the goal of the campaign, according to Prof. Bebic, is to sensitize the public to the problem of the violation of the Labor Act and the disenfranchisement of workers.
The head of the Franciscan Institute for the Culture of Peace, Fra Boze Vuleta, stated that this campaign was based on the general human principle: do not do unto others what you would not have others do unto you. He gave examples of individuals who literally work 365 days per year.
Auxiliary Bishop Vlado Kosic of Zagreb spoke on the behalf of the president of Croatian Caritas, Archbishop Ivan Prendja of Zadar, announcing that the Church supports this campaign and wants to protect people. He recalled that Archbishop Bozanic had mentioned Sunday in his Easter message, which for us Christians is holy and which is deeply rooted in the tradition of the Croatian nation. At the press conference, Bishop Kosic was the first to sign the petition to prohibit stores from operating on Sundays and holidays.
The president of the Mercantile Union of Croatia, Ana Knezevic, stated that 40,000 people are working 25 million overtime hours, for which they are generally not being paid, so that the country has no benefit from this at all. She pointed out that these 25 million hours would mean 12,000 new jobs. Ms. Knezevic noted that the government has not undertaken any measures to prevent employers from acting as they do. She also said that the situation in Croatia is the worst of any of the countries in transition, and of the 40,000 persons who work on Sundays, 75% are women, most of whom have families