Free Sunday-Loss, Deprivation or Welfare

This paper presents the part of results obtained by a comprehensive statistical analysis of public opinion in the issue of work-free Sunday, based on a survey undertaken in the Republic of Croatia in October 2017. The research has been made aiming at providing the answer to the crucial question of whether free Sunday can be considered only as of the economic issue or concerns deeply almost all the spheres of life in general. Moreover, the authors want to show and promote free Sunday as socio-economic phenomena which become a political and ideological issue as a fundamental human right and true notion of human freedom and welfare. Besides, as a member of the European Sunday Alliance, Croatia is the first EU member state which promotes free Sunday as one of the measures of active demographic policy. Along with the results of classical statistical processing of public opinion research, the methodology of this research has also involved the hypothesis testing about differences in the proportions as well as post-stratification of the two-step stratified random sample based on gender, age, size of residence, regions and education level. Even more, than two-thirds of respondents consider important or exceptionally important notworking on Sundays and support the maximum limit of that work.

Revolution that it has taken from the Gospel. (Črpić, Džolan,2014) These are very powerful ideas, the foundations of the development of our civilization. At the general level, many, if not all, will agree with these great ideas. However, when we ask how to be free today, a series of sub-questions open up: Where are the modern forms of enslavement? Who are the new slaveholders of our bodies and souls? Whose dignity we should protect, why and how? In some European countries, especially in Croatia, that means looking at the situation of women and men employed in retail stores. The situation in which these people are is closer to the state of slavery than the state of freedom. In Croatia people who work in retail stores are forced to work overtime, to work on holidays and Sundays. Formally, everything looks legitimate but in reality, they are not paid for overtime work nor their work on Sundays. If so, they are shamelessly underpaid.
Not only does the situation have negative consequences on their families, but also on society as a whole. The damages are even worse since most of these employees are women. Too much exploited and more absent than present in their families, women cannot effectively raise and educate their children. In the long run, this most likely generates and spreads violent behavior among children and young adolescents and consequently in society as a whole. That is why it concerns all the citizens and common freedom.
Moreover, what is happening to the employees in the retail trade today could soon happen to everyone else. The big capital knows no borders. In the Croatian language, the day devoted to the man and God, the day of the family, the day that enables and promotes freedom has a very indicative name "ne-djelati", which means "non-working". With the theme of non-working Sunday, it should be borne in mind that premature workers are more likely to get sick, especially from chronic illnesses.
As a rule, burly capital destroys all public expenditures, and this also applies to the reduction of the level of public health care. Consequently, an increase in social problems can be expected as well as the delinquent behavior of the impoverished. A particularly vulnerable group is formed by chronically-diseased middle-aged employees who at their firms become the technological surplus. They fall at the expense of the state and the state should be protected in that sense. To put it better, the state should first protect its citizens because that is its primary task.
It is particularly necessary to look at the social significance of the Sunday and its impact on family welfare. Joining European Sunday Alliance Croatia has enriched the scope of arguments for work-free Sunday by extending its relevance for demographic state and trends. Croatian Sunday Alliance has been first to propose free Sunday as one of the main measures of active demographic policy.
The results of many scientific types of research undoubtedly confirm the negative influence of overtime work, work on holidays and Sundays on the stability of marriage and family. Due to work overload, less time remains for quality marital relationships and the establishment of intimacy among spouses. Considering that partners spend most of their time together during weekends (Lyonette, Clark,2009) spouses who have to work on weekends have even less time for each other than those who have normal working hours. The research made on the sample of married couples in Zagreb, Croatia (Čudina, Obradović,2006) shows that partner's absence from home reduces the feeling of intimacy with one another, which leads to loneliness and causes weakening of mutual support.
Besides, excessive stress associated with significant disruption of family dynamics and the relationship between husband and wife can ultimately lead to divorce. An enormous increase in the divorce rate has devastating consequences not only to all members of respective families but also to society as a whole.
Fifty years ago, the main reasons for divorce were mostly behavioral and fairly concrete such as alcoholism and neglect by a spouse (Chang,2003). However, in the last two decades reasons for divorce have become more effective and abstract natures as feeling unloved or incompatible in the areas of life values and interests. According to the results of some researches with an increased number of hours women spend at their workplaces, the probability of divorce increases (Lyonette, Clark,2009). Since the number of divorced marriages in a quarter of the counties in the Republic of Croatia on an annual basis exceeded the number of new marriages, it is no wonder that free Sunday is for the first time perceived and promoted in Croatia as one of the main measures of active demographic policy. This paper is organized as follows. After the introduction, the second part of the paper is dedicated to the historical background and legislation in some European countries. The topic of the third part is the case study of Croatia consisting of statistical analysis of public opinion survey results. The public opinion survey on free Sunday has been carried out in October 2017 organized by Franciscan Institute for the Culture of Peace from Split. The final section contains concluding remarks. Consulted literature is listed at the end of the paper.

Free Sunday Background and Contemporary Legislation
It can hardly be denied that Sunday as "the day of the Lord and as the day of rest" is a Christian institution (Tamarut, 1970). Sunday is celebrated in the church as the day of Christ's resurrection. Throughout the centuries, this fundamental reason for celebration is sociologically infused with Jewish fundamental social attitude that a man needs rest. Moreover, Jewish tradition has always emphasized that this vacation belongs to every man, not just to certain groups or individuals. Therefore, the Israeli "Shabbat" as appreciating the Saturday as a holy day "appears already in the oldest parts of the Law (Exodus 20,8;23,12;34,21 )"( Spicq, Grilot, 1993 ), and is based on the cognition of the basic need of people and animals for rest. Saturday in Israel was originally a "social-ethical institution, i.e. exclusively day of the rest and  (Tamarut, 1970).
After a long time, the Roman Empire launched the legalization of the free day, and instead of Sabbath, Sunday become the free day as the day of Christ's resurrection. Namely, by legitimate reforms of Emperor Constantine life's attitude has changed considerably. Milan edict that prescribed Constantine I and Licinius in 313 stopped the persecution of Christians. Other reforms followed and Sunday was also overturned on a non-working, public holiday by the law in 321. Works in the field are exempted from the rest "because it is not always a good time for them" (Tamarut, 1970). Thus, those works who were defined as "farming or hard-working" through the later centuries were exempted by this law for practical reasons.
Modernization, urbanization, secularization, and industrialization have brought up the question of free Sunday into the center again. "Machine" and "Profit" caused an increase in working hours, and working conditions became worse and worse. Based on the scientific analysis of that time, the benefit of the workers' vacations is recognized and the free Sunday is reinstated in the legal regulations. Thus, the implementation of free Sunday in the legislations of the western countries at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century was not motivated by spirituality and/or the workers' needs. It has already seen the benefit of the workers' rest "for human-social and economic reasons" (Tamarut, 1970).
It is certainly the tradition of thousands of years of practice that has influenced the determination of Sunday as a non-working day. Thus, the non-working Sunday was reintroduced to Switzerland 1877, in Germany 1891, in France 1906and Italy in 1907. It should be noted that protestant countries such as England and the United States have not abolished free Sunday (Sabotič, 2005).
Due to the character of this paper, it is possible to provide only a concise description of the Sunday work models that are currently valid in certain European countries.
In the EU, about 30% of employees regularly work on Sundays. In Austria, this percentage is 16%, tending to grow, and in Germany 23%. According to Eurostat data, Sunday is mostly workday in England and Denmark, while Spain and Italy recorded the lowest level of Sunday work. Work on Sunday (in retail trade) is prohibited in Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Italy, Norway, Germany, Luxembourg, and Austria.
However, there are exceptions in all of these countries: work in retail shops in Norway is allowed only three weeks before Christmas from 14:00 to 20:00; in Greece, there are no work restrictions in smaller places and tourist zones; in the Netherlands, it is allowed to work 12 Sundays per year; in Spain 8 Sundays per year; in Finland just from 12:00 to 21:00h.
In Germany, since 2006, working time has been allocated to federal states. So, work on Sunday in Bavaria is prohibited altogether but in most other federal states it is allowed to work only 4-6 Sundays per year. Berlin was allowed to work full-time 10 Sundays from 1 pm to 8 pm. However, the Constitutional Court of Germany issued an act, in December 2009, according to which only exceptionally can shop be open on Sundays. This law emphasized that activities typical for workdays cannot be passed on to Sunday, and that "pure financial interests of the shop owners are not strong enough to open trade on Sunday ".
Thanks to a strong civilian fight for free Sunday; in Austria, the Constitutional Court issued a decision in 2012 which prohibited work on Sundays. Shops can be open on working days from 6 to 21h, on Saturdays from 6 to 18h. They are closed on Saturdays after 18h, on Sundays, on holidays and feasts. Exceptions are the stations, airports, ports and public events.
Due to multiple and various negative effects of work on Sundays throughout modern Europe in recent years numerous initiatives, associations and mass movements for free Sunday have been established. Among them are European Sunday Alliance and European Citizens' Initiative for a work-free Sunday in Europe which advocates nonworking Sunday be implemented in European legislation and be valid throughout the EU.

Case Study of Croatia
As an integral part of the EU, Croatia shares its destiny and all that has been said previously refers to Croatia, too. Croatia is a member of all-important European initiatives for free Sunday and is particularly active in the two above mentioned. Croatian Sunday Alliance (CSA) has been established in 2017. It is an association of trade unions, academic, social and religious institutions as well as NGOs. It's already mentioned that CSA as a member of the European Sunday Alliance has significantly contributed to the promotion of free Sunday as a measure of active demographic policy.
Free Sunday is particularly opposed to the competition of the burly capital owners. For decades they have been misrepresenting realities of the work on Sundays, falsely claiming, for example, that it increases economic activities and employment rate in Croatia. However, no economic theory proves that and the available indicators disclaim it. Moreover, the data of the Croatian Ministry of Finance Tax Department Zagreb in Table 1  The table shows that in all analyzed years the buyers in retail stores most often buy on Saturday, followed by Friday, Thursday, Wednesday, Monday, Tuesday, rather rarely they go shopping on Sunday, and rarely on holidays. These buying habits are relatively stable in the entire analyzed period.
In 2015 and 2016 on Saturdays, the purchases were 89% higher than on Sundays, and in 2017 the sales realized on Saturday exceeded the Sunday sales for 84% on average.
The difference is even higher when comparing turnover in retail trade on Saturday and holiday. The survey shows that in 2015 the average Saturday turnover was even 151% higher than average turnover on the days of holiday. In 2016 and 2017 the average retail turnover on Saturday exceeds the turnover realized on days of holiday for 144%.
CSA significantly contributed to the promotion of the values of free Sunday. On behalf of it, the Franciscan Institute for the Culture of Peace from Split conducted a survey, in October 2017, to find out prevailing public attitudes to the value of non-working Sunday, which authors have used as the case study of Croatia.
The public opinion survey was carried out by a specialized agency Ipsos Public Affairs. It was conducted by telephone interviews. Since the views of the Croatian population aged 18 and on were studied, a two-step stratified random sample was used with the following stages: • By random selection of place of residence within the stratum -the stratums are defined by region (6) and size of the place of residence (4 categories). • The household was chosen by the random selection of the phone number. • The respondent was chosen by quota.
The final realized sample consists of 603 respondents.
As far as methodology is concerned, testing of hypothesis about the difference in the proportions of the two statistical populations has been applied. The usual level of significance of the 5% test was used. Post-stratification of the two-step stratified random sample has been carried out based on gender, age, size of residence, regions and education level.
From the results of this comprehensive research, only some basic attitudes and answers to the relevant issues are presented in this paper. The first one is presented on Figure  1 with the answers to the question: "How often you, if ever, go to the next places on Sundays?" The random stratified sample enabled authors to statistically analyze the answers to the aforementioned question for some demographic features. The frequency of going to the respective places has been statistically analyzed about the answer: "I rarely or never visit them on Sundays". The analysis has been carried out for all of the places visited on Sundays and the results are very similar for each of them. Therefore, below are presented more precise results of visiting the shopping centres on Sundays based on demographic categories.
Statistical analysis has shown that there is no statistically significant difference between the frequency of going to a shopping centre on Sundays between men and women. The answer "I rarely or never go shopping on Sundays" gave 48% of male and 50% of female respondents. The same answer has been given by 47% of the urban and 52% of the rural population. It shows that neither their responses statistically differ significantly.
Analysis of the profile of the respondents according to the level of education reveals that 45% of them who have elementary school education, 51% middle and 46% high school or college education "rarely or never" go shopping on Sundays.
The respondents up to 30 years visit shopping centres on Sundays more often (41% rarely or never) while those between 45 and 60 years old do it the rarest (59% rarely or never). »Rarely or never« go shopping on Sundays 44% of the respondents between 30 and 44 years old and those over 60 do not differ much (45%).
The analysis done according to the particular regions of Croatia shows that 56% of the population of Zagreb and its surroundings go shopping on Sundays »rarely or never«; in Slavonija 41%; in Kordun and Lika 57%; in North Croatia 43%; in Primorje and Istra 46% and Dalmatia 49%.
Even more than two thirds (67.5%) of respondents claim that not-working on Sundays within their regular business is important or exceptionally important for them. What they particularly think about work on Sundays can be seen distinctly from the Figure 2. The share of different attitudes of respondents, resulting in the case of simulation of the Sunday work ban has been statistically analyzed according to their basic demographic features. Although the analysis has covered the answers to all the questions dealing with Sunday shopping in bakery, small grocery store, supermarket, shopping centre, kiosk, gas station and pharmacy in Table 2 Table 2 presents attitudes on adjustment to the change in the situation of the Sunday work ban. On average 61% of respondents in the entire sample have answered "it wouldn't be a problem ", to adjust to the situation where shopping centre does not work on Sundays, whereby there's no statistically significant difference in their answers considering gender criteria. Namely, 60% of male respondents would get used to work-free Sunday in shopping centres without problems, while the women show a somewhat higher percentage -62%. However, the analysis based on the age criteria shows statistically significant differences in adjustment to workfree Sunday in the shopping centre. The adjustment to such a situation would be most difficult for the oldest ones, and the easiest for the respondents aged 45 to 60. Namely even 74% of this last group have answered that the adjustment would not be a problem, on the contrary, only 44% of respondents above 60 years of age have given the same answer.
Considering the type of residence, there's no statistically significant difference in adjustment to work-free Sunday between rural (59%) and urban (62%) population. Differing from this demographic feature, upon the analysis based on the respondents' level of education, the resulting answers have shown statistically significant differences. While only 48% of the respondents with elementary school education would not find it problematic to get used to workfree Sunday in the shopping centre, even 68% of respondents with the highest level of education have given such an answer.
Differences in answers are also statistically significant according to the respondents' region of residence. Namely, the respondents from Slavonia have answered only in 46% cases that they would adjust without problems to work-free Sunday in the shopping centre, the same answer has been obtained even by 70% of respondents from the territory of Zagreb and its surroundings.
The answers analyzed according to the work status of respondents also show statistically significant differences. Students would have no problems getting used to a work-free Sunday of the shopping centre (51%), even 66% of the employed respondents would do the same. Among the respondents who work on Sundays, 70% of those with permanent work contracts would adjust without problem to work-free Sundays of the shopping centre, while only 56% of those who are sometimes engaged on a parttime basis for Sunday work give the same answer.
The resulting share of different attitudes of respondents in the case of simulation of Sunday work ban in pharmacy has also been subject to statistical analysis according to their basic demographic indicators. Percentages of the answer "it wouldn't be a problem"to adjust to Sunday work-ban in pharmacy are presented in the third column of Table 2.
The answers about the adjustment to work-free Sunday of the shopping centre "hard and very hard"are illustrated in the fourth column of Table 2 and reveal the same logic as the data presented in the first row of the same Table. This answer has been given by 6% of all respondents, equal percentage by men and by women. There are no statistically significant differences in the answers when analyse according to gender, education level and type of respondents' residence.
Namely, the percentage of respondents who would find it "hard and very hard"to adjust to a work-free Sunday of shopping centre according to all stated demographic categories remain at the level of population average of 6%.
The respondents' answers analyzed according to work status show statistically significant differences. The students have answered even in 12% of the cases that they would find it "hard and very hard" to adjust to a work-free Sunday of the shopping centre, and unemployed persons have given such an answer only in 2% of the cases.
The fifth and sixth columns of Table 2 present demographic features of the percentage of respondents who would find it "hard and very hard" to adjust to a work-free Sunday of pharmacy.
In order to simulate the effects of work-free Sunday as the measure of demographic policy, the respondents have been asked as follows: "Would you mind if your family member had to work on Sundays?" The answers are illustrated in Figure 3. The answers of the respondents to the question: "Would you mind if your family member had to work on Sundays?" have been statistically analyzed according to demographic features in Table 3.
The answer "I would not mind if my family member had to work on Sundays" has been given by 42% of respondents, precisely 46% men and 39% women.
According to the type of residence, the share of answers to this question doesn't show a statistically significant difference, since the answers of both, rural and urban population correspond to the average of the interviewed population. The highest share of this answer is recorded in the youngest age group of respondents -58% in the group aged below 30 years. Meanwhile, this answer reaches only 32 % in the age group 45 to 60. The answers of respondents with different levels of education also show statistically significant differences. 37% of those with elementary school education would not mind if their family member had to work on Sundays, and those with the highest level of education would not mind it in 56% of cases.
Regional differences noted in this answer are minor. Thus, the respondents from the area of Banovina, Lika, and Kordun record the lowest percentage of such answers (35%), differing from Dalmatia with the highest percentage (45%) of the above answer.
The survey shows statistically significant differences in the answers analyze according to work status. Thus 36 % of pensioners would not mind if their family member had to work on Sundays, this answer among unemployed respondents has reached the level of even 60%.
Considering that the answer "I do not know" to this question (together with those who have not answered at all) has been given on average by 2,7% respondents, the relations of statistically significant differences according to demographic features remain unchanged and are illustrated in the last row of Table 3.  Table 4 provides the review of the answers to the question "How important is it to you personally not to work on Sundays?" expressed in percentage and analyze according to demographic features.

Answers about situation that family member had to work on
For more than two-thirds of respondents (68%), it is important that they personally don't have to work on Sundays. These answers show statistically significant differences between male and female respondents. 61% of respondents aged below 30 years have answered that it is important to them that they personally do not have to work on Sundays, and this percentage has increased to 73% in the group aged 30 to 40 years.
The rural population considers it important not to work on Sundays in 63% of cases, and urban respondents even in 71%.
Regional differences are similar. Namely 62% of the population of North Croatia and Croatian Littoral & Istria declare that it is important for them not to work on Sundays, and the same applies to 73% of the Dalmatian population. According to work status, the employed respondents show the highest rate of those for whom it is important that they personally do not have to work on Sundays (74%), among them only 46% of students.
Modalities and frequency of the answer to the question "How important are it to you personally not to work on Sundays?" are illustrated in It is highly indicative for integral conclusions of this research that even 70% of all the respondents support the limitation of work on Sundays. After the accomplished methodology of stratification, the results of statistical analysis of the frequency of respondents' answers according to their demographic features are illustrated in Table 5.
It is interesting to set aside according to demographic features those groups of respondents who have more often supported the limitation of work on Sundays, differing from the respondents who show the average result on the level of the sample as a whole. These are women who support the limitation of Sunday work in 73% of cases. Age criteria show the major share of supporters of Sunday work limitation in groups aged 30 to 45 (74%), and 45 to 60 (77%). The respondents with secondary school education also support Sunday work limitation above average (73%), just like the urban population (71%). Regions, where the respondents prefer Sunday work limitation above average, are North Croatia (73%), Slavonia (75%) and Croatian Littoral & Istria (76%). Analysis of the respondents according to work status criteria shows that work-free Sunday is mostly (75%) urged by the employed persons.

Conclusion
This paper tries to provide the answer to the crucial question of whether work-free Sunday can be considered only as of the economic issue or concerns deeply almost all the segments of life in general. Moreover, the authors through the results of the public opinion research want to show and promote work-free Sunday as one of the major socio-economic phenomena, which in the modern world becomes a political and ideological issue as a fundamental human right which, inter alia, is the true notion of human freedom and welfare. Besides, as a member of the European Sunday Alliance, Croatia is the first EU member state which promotes free Sunday as one of the measures of active demographic policy.
The case study is based on the results of the research of public opinion about the work-free Sunday, undertaken in October 2017. Along with results of classical statistical methods applied in the processing of public opinion research, the methodology of this research has also involved hypothesis testing about the difference in the proportion of the two statistical populations as well as post-stratification of the two-step stratified random sample on the basis of gender, age, size of residence, regions and education level.
In recent months, after a long silence, free Sunday has recurrently appeared as the topic of discussion in Croatia. Namely, for decades the burly capital owners have been misrepresenting realities of the work on Sundays, falsely claiming, for example, that it increases economic activities and employment rate in Croatia. However, no economic theory proves that and the available indicators disclaim it.
Moreover, the data of the Croatian Ministry of Finance-Tax Department Zagreb show far the lowest fiscal turnover in retail trade on Sundays and holidays. In all analyzed years, the buyers in retail trade most often buy on Saturday, followed by Friday, Thursday, Wednesday, Monday, Tuesday, rather rarely on Sunday, and almost never on holidays. These features remain relatively stable in the entire analyzed period.
In compliance with the character of this paper, the most important results of the comprehensive statistical analysis of this research have been highlighted. Almost onethird of the respondents visit the bakery at least every second Sunday, and almost one-fourth of them go to small grocery stores and supermarkets. The pensioners show the lowest Sunday shopping rate, on the contrary, young respondents, in particular students, practice Sunday shopping more often.
Almost all the respondents agree that it is important for the family to be together on Sundays, and think that Sunday work is bad and incurs numerous and long-lasting adverse consequences in all the segments of life. The respondents generally, in all subsets, distributed according to demographic features, to a high extent agree with those allegations which are directed against Sunday work, and they do not agree with those which justify it.
If raising the issue of free Sunday as a dominant political question, the answers of the respondents might be used as a general conclusion based on the results of public opinion research. The share of 47% "fully supports the maximum limitation of Sunday work". If we add to the above percentage 24% of those who "mostly support it", the final result reveals the truth, so different from the conclusions often imposed by media, that even 70% of respondents support the limitation of Sunday work. In 27% of the cases, the respondents do not support the limitation of Sunday work, and 2,7% of them have not declared their attitude.
This work is only a part of the on-going research dealing with the free Sunday phenomenon and the authors have presented the beginnings of extensive public opinion statistical analysis. Therefore, the results of further researches by the same authors, that promote the values of the nonworking Sunday as the basis of well-being, can be expected soon.