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Sette Giugno

If you’re a shopowner and you’re reading this from your workplace while waiting for the first customers to walk into the shop on this public holiday then congrats for paying €700 for the right to display full confidence in the love of commerce of the average Maltese shopper. I wonder whether shopping centres such as Plaza, Bay Street or the Point get to pay €700 once for the whole establishment or whether each outlet in the centres has to pay individually.

If the pay once for a centre rule applies then I wonder if it would work for agglomerations of shops such as the one set up for shops in Republic Street. I’m still not convinced about all this fuss with shops opening on public holidays. As I have said before my only concern would be the employees – then again if replacements are found for Sundays and Public Holidays then blessed is the free market.

It’s the seventh june and there is not much to report from Luxembourg on this Maltese public holiday. Just a little note – I am ‘blaming’ our little post on Israel and Death in the Med for the sudden otherwise inexplicable hike in readership with over 2,500 readers per day for two consecutive days. Either that or Antoine Vella is desperate for reading material on the net given the partial demise of his pink read.

Blog readership is about to go into the notorious usual period of summer slump (probably exacerbated by the World Cup) – unless iphones and ipads at the beach give us a new surprise. Expect J’accuse to adapt accordingly.

Happy Sette Giugno to all you revellers out there…. and to Twanny V.

Categories
Politics

May Day May Day

So the government has rejected the request for shops to open on Workers’ Day. Spokespersons for the ministry of finance said that circumstances were not extraordinary such as to warrant allowing shops to stay open.

I’m missing something here. What is the principle behind whether or not shops open on a particular day? Whether it is a Sunday or public holiday that we are talking about I am genuinely asking whether the government can put its finger on one particular principle.

Apparently an exception was made previously on Freedom Day (March 31st) when shops had been allowed to open. March 31st happened to be a Wednesday that fell two days before Good Friday. So one can assume that the reasoning was that with March 31 thrown in and with Good Friday being another closed shop day there would be too much shopping deprivation in one week (considering of course that this includes Sunday so technically three days on seven would be serious deprivation for shopaholics).

How does that principle work though? The GRTU argued that keeping shops closed on Workers’ Day (a Saturday) would mean two consecutive days of shoplessness. Has this therefore has become the standard measure?

To my mind the main concern with whether or not shops open on Sundays and Public Holidays are the workers themselves. In countries like France and the UK where the debate raged until the common sense free market approach (yes, I am biased) prevailed that was the main question.

The problem I have here is that the government (in this case the proto-conservative PN) gives the impression of having a problem with free choice. Times have moved on and many countries have Sunday (and Bank Holiday) opening hours for certain establishments. I would prefer to have a more clear decision on the issue – one that is not twisted by undecipherable exceptions.

So. Are you a pro-open all hours or do you too want a commerce free day?