Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 2008, publiée 98ème session CIT (2009)

Article 4 of the Convention. Total or partial exceptions. The Committee notes that, under section 175(1) of the Labour Code, work during days of compulsory rest is authorized among other reasons for work which cannot be interrupted by a reason of its nature or on technical grounds, as well as for work intended to respond to needs which cannot be deferred, such as public services or the sale and preparation of foodstuffs. It also notes that, under section 175(2), the Government has to specify the types of work concerned. In this respect, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the fact that Article 4 of the Convention makes the authorization of total or partial exceptions to the normal weekly rest scheme subject to special regard being had to all proper humanitarian and economic considerations so as to ensure a balance between the interests of employers and those of workers. The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate whether regulations have been adopted under section 175 of the Labour Code and, if so, to provide a copy. The Government is also asked to indicate the manner in which economic and humanitarian considerations are taken into account in the context of the implementation of this provision of the Labour Code.

Article 5. Compensatory rest. The Committee notes that section 180 of the Labour Code provides that a worker employed on an exceptional basis on the day of weekly rest is entitled, at her or his choice, to compensatory leave or payment in cash. It further notes that this option is also offered, in section 184 of the Labour Code, to workers carrying out tasks the performance of which may not be suspended. The Committee requests the Government to refer in this respect to the observation that it is making on the application of the Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106). It draws the Government’s attention to the fact that, although the Convention does not establish, as Convention No. 106 does, the absolute requirement to grant compensatory rest to workers to whom suspensions or reductions of the weekly rest period are applicable, it nevertheless provides in Article 5 that States must make, “as far as possible”, provision to this effect. Indeed, the primary objective of the Convention is to protect the health of workers by ensuring that they are granted minimum rest periods and this objective cannot be fulfilled if compensatory rest is replaced by financial compensation. The Committee therefore hopes that the Government will extend to workers engaged on an exceptional basis on the day of weekly rest and to those carrying out tasks the performance of which cannot be suspended the benefit of section 181 of Labour Code, which provides for paid compensatory rest, without prejudice to financial compensation, for workers engaged habitually on the day of weekly rest.

Part V of the report form. The Committee requests the Government to provide a general appreciation of the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice including, where possible, statistical data on the number of workers covered by the relevant legislation, reports of the inspection services and information on the number and nature of the violations reported.