The Trade Union Association of Bohemia, Moravia & Silesia has long, permanently and unequivocally supported the enactment of a day off on all public holidays for all store employees – sales persons.
We see how right-wing parties, led by the Civic Democratic Party (the ODS), are constantly striving to abolish the ban on eight public holidays selected by Czech Republic’s law. In contrast to this right-wing initiative, the OS ČMS welcomes the parliamentary initiative now submitted to the Chamber of Deputies by a group of deputies, which aims to extend the sales ban to all public holidays.
We also support the effort to protect employees of smaller stores to ensure them to have time off on public holidays. We consider the ban on stores with a sales area over 200 m² to have been overcome today.
The retail sector in the Czech Republic employs 11 per cent of all employees. When adjusting working hours in trade and especially in retail, it is not only about protecting working women, who today make up 80 per cent to 90 per cent of the 525,935 employees in the trade sector in the Czech Republic. It should be noted that women, however, make up more than 90 per cent of the 247,211 employees in retail. They therefore bear the brunt of the employee’s tied position towards the employer, as sales persons in the trade sector.
According to the OS ČMS, the right-wing argument that by limiting sales hours, employees will lose the opportunity to earn money thanks to the bonus for working on a public holiday cannot stand. The right to this bonus does not arise automatically; the basic rule is to provide compensatory time off. However, in practice, it is very often circumvented.
The second right-wing argument, which is based on the claim that there is no need for any adjustments to sales hours and that employees should reach an agreement with their employers, does not stand either. However, the employment relationship is based on the tied position of the employee towards the employer, on the employer’s superiority towards the employee. The absence of unions among the overwhelming majority of employers and retail workers, the preference for short-term and part-time work, reinforce the binding position of employees. Any agreement here is reduced to a formal agreement with the employer’s shift schedule, among other things due to real fears of losing their jobs.
Ten years of effectiveness of the regulation banning sales on selected public holidays have clearly shown that employers have been able to deal with it in the trade sector.
Act No. 223/2016 Coll., on sales hours in retail, the so-called “Sales Hours Act” must not become another tool of the right to pressure waitresses and sales persons!
We support the extension of the sales ban to all public holidays and to establishments with an area of less than 200 m²!
Shop employees also have their rights!
OS ČMS
In Prague, June 27, 2026
Czech Republic
