A Migros shop near Zurich main station has to remain closed on Sunday. The Unia trade union is successful with a complaint against the major distributor.
The Migros Daily branch on Zollstrasse has become a bone of contention.
Should you be allowed to shop on Sunday? The question has been discussed in newspaper columns and online forums for years. It also concerns the courts. A Migros shop on Zollstrasse, not far from Zurich main station, could now set a precedent. The Unia union is a thorn in the side of the Migros Daily branch, which is also open on Sundays.
Shortly after the opening three years ago, Unia legally obtained that the shop was not allowed to be open on Sundays. Migros responded with a concept for a store without staff. Specifically, only self-checkout tills are used there. Migros reopened the shop in October 2020 after renovations.
Chess move or “cunning”?
For some it was a smart move – with the ironic note that the union’s struggle resulted in a shop with almost no workers. For the others, especially Unia as the plaintiff, it was a matter of “cunning”. She got the Office for Economics and Labor (AWA) to issue an order. This challenged the Unia.
From a legal point of view, Unia was right for the time being: with its complaint against the shop concept, it was successful in the administrative court. The judgment is before the NZZ.
On Zollstrasse, Migros mainly sells snacks and meals. According to the original concept, the Migros Daily branch should be open seven days a week, especially on Sunday, which according to the Migros Zurich cooperative is the day of the week with the highest turnover. But shortly after the opening in 2019, “20 minutes” asked the canton about the permissibility of Sunday sales. The AWA came to a negative assessment.
According to the federal labor law, exceptions to the general ban on working on Sundays are permitted, for example for shops in train stations. However, the Migros Daily branch is located between Zollstrasse and Konradstrasse and is therefore not on the station site, but in a “normal” urban area.
Replenish bread forbidden
But why should a branch without staff also fall under the labor law? This is not obvious at first glance. However, the major distributor cannot do without any staff at all. The employees of the nearby branch in the Zurich Shop-Ville stock the shelves. You do this while in the shelf the day before. However, this is not the case for bread and baked goods.
Migros and AWA argued that the employees of the Shop Ville branch could easily be instructed to deliver bread to a specific location – i.e. also to a shop outside the main train station. There is also a need among the population to be able to shop on Sundays, “while reducing personal interactions at the same time”. But the court did not accept this: the procedure was tantamount to relaxing the ban on working on Sunday. However, the legislature has defined this prohibition very narrowly.
It would not help Migros if it stopped selling baked goods. On Sunday, she also employs a person on site who is responsible for security. This monitors the self-check-out tills, turns away “uninvited” customers, turns on the light in the morning and wipes up if a milk carton bursts open.
There are legal exceptions for security personnel. But this exception does not apply in this case, according to the administrative court. If the shop were not open, there would be no need for security personnel to be on duty. According to the verdict, this employment relationship is therefore also illegal.
Nicole Niedermüller, spokeswoman for Unia Zurich-Schaffhausen, says that one is very happy about the clear positioning of the administrative court. “What was presented to us by Migros as a loophole is not one: you cannot simply replace sales staff with security and thus circumvent the ban on working on Sundays.” A cantonal body like the AWA must also comply with federal laws. The clear language of the court was also pleasing. Because there are repeated attempts to soften the legally anchored Sunday work.
Neither Migros nor AWA wanted to comment on the judgment at this point in time.
Politically, the debate continues. In the canton of Zurich, there has long been a dispute about Sunday work. Ten years ago, voters clearly rejected an initiative by the FDP to liberalize shop opening hours. Government Councilor Carmen Walker Späh (FDP) recently campaigned for the Federal Council to intervene in the labor law by means of a regulation and allow Sunday sales in tourist zones in cities. This with the aim of reviving the business of the local retailers after the Corona bear market. In the Canton Council found a similar parliamentary initiative a clear majority from GLP, FDP and SVP.
Migros can challenge the judgment before the Federal Supreme Court. As long as the case is not decided, the shop will remain open on Sunday.