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[reddogs]

European Union has its own day of rest?

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I was reading through some stories on Sabbath when this one jumped out at me. I didnt know they are designation which day is their 'day of rest', has anyone heard about this...


"...The European Union has set up the policy that every member-state must have one day of rest during the week. But the policy explicitly states that the designated day need not be Sunday, since for reasons of "religious pluralism" a nation's government might choose another day.
In Italy, the designation of Sunday as a "day of rest" was first set in 1993. That policy was changed in 2000, however, when-- in order to grant more flexibility for employers-- the nation required only that every employer produce workers with a 24-hour rest period each week. But by August 2003, under the new European policy, Italy will again be required to fix a certain "day of rest." In an interview with the daily Corriere della Sera, Bishop Giancarlo Bregantini-- who heads a committee dealing with social issues for the Italian bishops' conference-- remarked that attitudes on the observance of the Sabbath are "already bad enough" without a change in national policy. He said that any move away from the Sunday rest would be "a perverse act." And Cardinal Pio Laghi, the former prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, asked La Repubblica: "How can you overlook the fact that Sunday is a special day for millions of Europeans?"...."

http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=19559

[Bob Pickle]

The working time directive which I think was part of the Maastricht treaty tried to do this, tried to assign Sunday as the specific day of rest workers would have each week. Only Britain resisted, and eventually the courts said that while the EU could mandate that workers have a day off each week, they couldn't say which day it would be. That debate was going on around 1993 or so, and lasted for a number of years before it was resolved.

What the current status is for that kind of thing I do not know, but the Treaty of Lisbon does make binding a charter of rights which includes an unspecified weekly rest period.

[reddogs]

Here is another tidbit I came across...
 
ZAGREB, Croatia - The Croatian parliament has passed a law forcing shops to close on Sundays in a concession to the Roman Catholic church.

The church has campaigned for years for Sundays to be devoted to family or Mass in Croatia, which is almost 90 percent Roman Catholic. But Croatians have begun spending weekends in shopping malls that have flourished across the country in the past few years and remain open seven days a week.

The law adopted Tuesday and goes into effect Jan. 1. It allows Sunday shopping over the summer and Christmas holidays.

The law also allows stores in gas, bus and train stations to open on Sundays year-round, along with those in hospitals. Bakeries, newsstands and flower shops are also exempt from the ban.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080715/ap_on_re_eu/croatia_sunday_shopping

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