One year of Sunday shop closures in FBiH: Drop in employment, Minister Hasičević announces 2,000 jobs at Lidl

(Patria) - Amendments to the Law on Internal Trade, effective November 17 last year, introduced a ban on retail and wholesale businesses operating on Sundays. Some specific activities are exempt from the ban (gas stations, florists, bakeries), and the trade sector recorded a drop in employment, which at one point amounted to 2,000 lost jobs.

The Federal Minister of Trade, Amir Hasičević (Our Party), today posted on social media regarding the first year of the Sunday work ban, boasting about the turnover in the trade sector. Although Hasičević points out that growth of 72 million KM was recorded in the first ten months of this year, he forgot to mention that prices increased multiple times.

"Changes in the number of employees are the result of a broader set of economic and market factors, including seasonal fluctuations, consolidation of retail chains, business automation, increased online sales, and labor market trends as a whole," Hasičević explains.

There are over 80,000 employees in the trade sector in FBiH, and the minister announces massive employment in the Lidl and Bingo chains. Lidl is building a larger number of facilities across BiH, and the opening of retail outlets is planned for the second half of 2026.

Although there was talk of amending the Law on Internal Trade so that owners and family members could work in shops on Sundays, these amendments were never adopted. Several municipalities and cities requested an exemption from the application of the Sunday work ban from the FBiH Government, but not all requests were granted.

Some jobs in the trade sector were also lost after the increase in the minimum wage from January this year, from 619 to 1,000 KM, leading employers to seek ways to reduce costs when Sunday operations were already banned.