Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Since the Government’s first report on the application of the Convention, the Committee has pointed to the non-conformity of sections 136 and 140 of the Labour Code with the Convention and to the need to amend these provisions. The discrepancies between the Labour Code and the Convention are repeated below.

Article 2 of the Convention. Maximum daily limit on the hours of work. Article 2 of the Convention provides for the general principle, that working hours shall not exceed eight per day and 48 per week. Paragraph (b) of this provision allows, under certain circumstances, for the daily limit of eight hours to be exceeded by one hour in cases of uneven distribution of hours of work within the week. In such cases, the hours of work shall not be more than nine hours per day. Section 136 of the Labour Code is not in conformity with the provisions of the Convention on this point, as it provides for the possibility to work up to ten hours per day for work which is not inherently unhealthy or dangerous.

Article 6. Overtime. Section 140 of the Labour Code provides that the hours of work, including overtime, shall not exceed 12 hours per day (which is four hours more than the normal hours of work). Article 6 of the Convention gives an exhaustive enumeration of cases in which permanent and temporary exceptions are allowed. Therefore, additional hours of work cannot be authorized in all circumstances. Furthermore, such exceptions must remain within reasonable limits (see paragraph 226 of the General Survey of 1967 on the hours of work which deals with this issue). Permitting four additional hours per day without any monthly or yearly limit does not appear to fulfil this condition.

The Committee hopes that in the light of these new explanations, the Government will soon be able to amend sections 136 and 140 of the Labour Code in order to bring them in line with the Convention.

In a request addressed directly to the Government the Committee raises certain further issues concerning, in particular, a draft amendment to the Labour Code, on which an observation has been made by the Confederation of Workers Rerum Novarum (CTRN). If adopted, the draft amendment would not appear to bring the legislation into conformity with the Convention. The Committee hopes that the amendments to the Labour Code, which it has been requesting repeatedly for many years, and more generally, the underlying principles in the Convention, will be taken into account during the drafting of the new legislation.