Commissioner for Protection of Equality Brankica Jankovic welcomes the decision of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunication to establish a working group that would consider all aspects of potential prohibition for shops to work on Sundays.

Commissioner Jankovic says that it was good to have such a quick reaction to our suggestion, reminding that the she sent the initiative to amend the Trade Law in mid-December last year. It was stated in this initiative, among other things, that a rule of non-working Sundays for shops could be prescribed through precise definition of the exceptions. In traditional Serbian culture, Sunday is a non-working day, dedicated to rest and strengthen the family and friend bonds. Introducing Sunday as a working day in areas which are not of existential significance is the consequence of accelerated life style and changes that happened during the last decade of 20^th century and obscurely became a part of our life. In addition, there are 200,000 people employed in sales, while 70% of them are women.

Commissioner believes that the working group, which will include all relevant actors, will accept the initiative, whose main goal is to improve the position of shop employees, but also to improve the equality of all citizens.