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Starting tomorrow, the shops will close at 7 pm The social partners have agreed on this. The measure will take effect on Wednesday, November 11 at 00:00 am, the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday. This does not apply to gas stations, vending machines, points of sale at train stations and airports (each of which does not exceed 80 square meters of sales area).
“This restriction on opening hours is intended to ensure that purchases are made in time before the start of exit restrictions, so that the objective of the ordinance of the greatest possible reduction in mobility in the afternoon and evening hours it can be taken into account in the best possible way, “the ministry said.
If it were up to the union and the Chamber of Commerce, the regulation should have gone into effect last week. One trade unionist described the fact that it had taken so long as a “tragedy”. With the early closure of the stores, the GPA-djp union wanted to give predominantly female shop employees the opportunity to be home in time for the start of exit restrictions. The Chamber of Commerce also agreed to the temporary restriction of opening hours, as it had already demonstrated during the first closing.
Resistance of supermarket chains
Large supermarket chains in particular have reportedly spoken out against an early closure. Retail group Spar openly criticized the plans the previous week. “We believe that shortening the opening hours does not make sense. It does not help anyone. From an epidemiological point of view, it is better if the people who buy are spread over more hours. And since you can go home from work at any time and use public transportation, driving, is not a problem for employees, “said Spar spokeswoman Nicole Berkmann. Several large shopping centers, as well as the furniture chain Ikea, already voluntarily adjusted their schedules last week and will close earlier.
But the previous closing time was also questionable from a legal point of view. The lawyers warned of constitutional problems. The lawyer Georg Krakow recognized in the “Standard” that the regulation of protection measures contained clear exceptions to the curfew from 8 pm Explicitly enabling purchases on the one hand, but on the other hand closing the stores earlier by ordinance, is legally questionable. In addition, there would be an unequal treatment that is difficult to explain with the rest of the employees who are allowed to stay longer in the office for professional reasons, according to the former prosecutor.
The fact that the Ministry of Health is now making a distinction between commercial and service companies is explained by the fact that service companies would work almost exclusively by appointment and therefore could precisely control customer flows. As a result, comparatively few clients are present there at the same time. In the retail sector, it is more difficult to control the frequency and flows of customers specifically, according to the ministry. It is not uncommon for large numbers of customers to enter stores shortly before closing time.
Outgoing rule extended ten days
The exit restrictions that are in effect from November 3 to contain the corona pandemic will be extended tomorrow Wednesday for ten more days. The corresponding decision will be made in the evening in the main committee of the National Council. This is necessary because, according to legal requirements, exit restrictions can only be decided for ten days. All other measures of the partial blockade have already been decided for four weeks until the end of November.
An evaluation of these measures should be carried out “in the coming days,” he said Tuesday at the request of the APA in the Ministry of Health. Until then, we want to determine if the desired reduction in the number of infections has occurred or if it is possible that it is necessary to reinforce the measures. (apa)
