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Victoria Mindova

The season of summer sales is here as well as the hopes of traders that their turnover will improve. From 15 July to 31 August the shops in Greece will gradually reduce the prices of their goods by 10% to 60% -70%.

A poll carried out by the marketing research and communication company MARC at the beginning of the year shows that seven out of ten respondents wait for the season of sales to start to make purchases. Our conversations with citizens who had already gone shopping on the first day of the reductions have confirmed this fact too. "I am now examining the prices. I expect that there will be greater reductions after 10 days when I am going to fill in some gaps in my summer wardrobe," states a student from Athens, aged 24.

So far, the new wave of tourists has maintained the turnover of the shops in Athens. In the centre of the city, you can see large groups of foreigners coming out of the shopping centres with several bags full of branded goods. According to the Greek trade union, the strongest periods of the sector coincide with seasonal discounts. Nevertheless, the summer period of 2012 resulted in a 13% lower turnover compared to the summer sales of 2011. The retailers are hoping to offset this year some of the losses they incurred in 2012.

"We have high expectations related to the period of summer sales during the next six weeks. We want to unite tourism and trade. We expect an increase in the tourist flow this year and we want to take advantage of the added value that the increased number of visits to the country will bring to the Greek economy," Vassilis Korkidis, president of the Greek trade union, told GRReporter.

According to the union of the tourism sector, it is expected that 17 million tourists will visit Greece this year. For a country with a population of 10 million, the increase in the tourist flow will bring significant revenue to the state treasury, improving the turnover of a number of sectors.

However, Greece is split in two opposing camps on the subject of working on Sundays.

The trade unions in the country have united against the decision of the Ministry of Economy and Development to allow shops with an area of up to 250 square metres to work 52 Sundays a year. They have even created a "Pact for the preservation of non-working Sundays" which was signed by the Greek trade union, the association of craftsmen and tradesmen, the federation of private sector employees, consumer organizations and regional institutions.

"The experience in other European countries shows that the cost of retailers increases by 1.5% per year whereas the increase in their revenue is just 0.5%. This means that the commercial organizations will operate at a loss," states Korkidis without referring to specific countries.

The opponents of working on Sundays argue that the total wage costs for the sector amount to 6.5 billion euro. The opening of shops on Sundays will burden the wage costs by another 1.6 billion euro. "The retailers can no longer withstand the pressure of the crisis. We are unable to find another 1.6 billion euro to finance the proposal of the government."

The counter-proposal of the retailers is for the state to subsidize the new jobs with European funds. "If 10% of the shops hire a new employee who is subsidized by the state, 28,000 new jobs will open," states Korkidis.

The Greek trade union insists on extending the working hours in the sector only in tourist areas such as resorts, ports and airports. In the other areas of the country, the shops should work only six Sundays a year, namely around Easter, Christmas, New Year and during the two periods of seasonal sales.

The union of trade employees, however, is of a different opinion. "Who will determine when the tourist season begins and when it ends? If the shops around the Acropolis are open on Sundays, why shouldn't the shops in the neighbourhood operate?" states the secretary of the union of trade employees Thanos Vasilopoulos.

The members of the "Pact for the preservation of non-working Sundays" agree with the general opinion that the interests of large multinational corporations are hiding behind the government's proposal to make Sunday a working day.

"The owners of malls and multinational corporations are preparing claims to the Supreme Administrative Court to be able to work on Sundays. If this happens, small sole traders will be destroyed," the unions insist.

The bill on working on Sundays should be voted on next week. The union leaders are launching a massive campaign in the political circles in order for them to convince the deputies of various political groups to vote against the proposal of the Ministry.

On Monday afternoon, George Kavatas, president of the association of craftsmen and tradesmen, will appear before the parliamentary group of PASOK to convince the socialist deputies to vote against the proposal.

"We have reason to believe that the deputies will support us. Tomorrow they will have to respond to their voters in the area why they have voted for a law that is contrary to the interests of the local community," says Kavatas.

If the campaign of the unionists does not work and the law on the introduction of working on Sundays is adopted, the members of the "Pact for the preservation of non-working Sundays" will protest. "Not only will we not open our shops on Sundays but the owners and the staff along with their families will go out in the street to show that we are united in our position," states Vasilopoulos, who is also a member of the parliamentary opposition SYRIZA party.

Vassilis Korkidis in turn says, "We have withstood six years of recession and four years without banks. We will not let them force us to open our shops on Sundays and declare bankruptcy en masse."

Meanwhile, the established working hours in Greece remain in force. The shops are open until three in the afternoon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays whereas on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays they are open until nine in the evening, with a break between three and five in the afternoon, and foreign tourists still wonder why the shops do not operate all day.