November 1, the All Saints Day, is to be the first day to implement the statutory ban on working during national holidays in Poland. Still, some of the chain stores are allowed to open their shops, and petrol stations in turn may be closed.

According to the regulations, a shop owner who is not employed on the basis of the work-contract, on a national holiday is allowed to stand behind the counter himself. What is more he may employ a natural person on commission as a shop assistant for that day. This is a chance for evading the ban by many franchise chain store units. This however may be difficult for petrol stations. Poland’s Labor Ministry has no doubt that the ban concerns also filling stations, while the owners are of course of a different opinion.

The dispute is caused by an unclear interpretation of the regulations. The ministry perceives filling stations as trading business (banned on holidays), but the industry itself define petrol stations an service providers. This case is very complicated and the Polish Chamber of Liquid Fuels turned to the Labor Ministry and the National Labor Inspectorate to interpret the law.

Those who violate the ban may be facing a penalty fine to the tune of as many as 30,000 zlotys ($ 11,900). President Lech Kaczynski signed the amendment to the labor code on September 20, 2007 introducing a trading ban for retail units during the 12 national holidays in the year, including All Saints, Independence Day, Christmas, New Year’s Day, the Easter Holidays, 1 May, Constitution Day, Corpus Christi and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August 15. (petrolplaza)