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The Committee recalls its previous direct request in which it drew the Government’s attention to a specific provision of the General Labour Act No. 2/2000 allowing for broader exceptions to the prohibition of night work of women than those permitted under the Convention. The Committee notes that no explanations have been provided concerning this point and that the Government affirms that under the new labour legislation women’s night work may in fact be authorized by the General Labour Inspectorate when shift work so requires and the female workers concerned have given their consent.

The Committee takes this opportunity to refer to paragraphs 191-202 of its 2001 General Survey on the night work of women in industry, in which it observed that the present trend is no doubt to move away from a general prohibition against women’s night work and to give the social partners the responsibility for determining the extent of the permitted exemptions. In this respect, the Committee considered that the Protocol of 1990 to Convention No. 89 was designed as a tool for smooth transition from outright prohibition to free access to night employment, especially for those States that wished to offer the possibility of night employment to women workers but felt that some institutional protection should remain in place to avoid exploitative practices and a sudden worsening of the social conditions of women workers. It also suggested that greater efforts should be made by the Office to help those constituents who are still bound by the provisions of Convention No. 89, and who are not yet ready to ratify the new Night Work Convention, 1990 (No. 171), to realize the advantages of modernizing their legislation in line with the provisions of the Protocol. Therefore, the Committee once again invites the Government to give favourable consideration to the ratification of the 1990 Protocol which affords greater flexibility in the application of the Convention while remaining focused on the protection of female workers. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of any progress made or decisions taken in this regard. Finally, the Committee would be grateful to the Government for providing in its next report, in accordance with Part V of the report form, all available information concerning the practical application of the Convention, including for instance extracts from reports of inspection services, statistics on the number of workers covered by relevant legislation, the application of the exceptions allowed under the provisions of the Convention, etc.