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Article 7, paragraph 2, of the Convention. Special weekly rest schemes and compensatory rest. The Committee notes that, according to section 13 of Order No. 22/MLTS/DEGRE of 27 May 1969, security guards, who are housed by the enterprise at the workplace and who cannot be granted weekly rest, shall be granted compensatory rest which may, at their request, be accumulated and added to their annual leave. It notes that this option offered to security guards is not consistent with Article 7, paragraph 2, of the Convention, the objective of which is to protect the health and welfare of workers by ensuring that they are granted a regular minimum rest period. In this regard, the Committee wishes to draw the Government’s attention to Paragraph 3 of the Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Recommendation, 1957 (No. 103), under which special rest schemes should ensure that the persons to whom such schemes apply do not work for more than three weeks without receiving the rest periods to which they are entitled. The Committee therefore requests the Government to consider amending this provision of the Order of 1969 in order to guarantee these workers a weekly rest period at regular intervals.

Article 8, paragraph 3. Temporary exemptions and compensatory rest. As in its previous comments, the Committee notes that sections 10–12 of Order No. 22/MLTS/DEGRE of 27 May 1969, which provide for the suspension of the weekly rest period in return for payment for the extra hours work, but without granting compensatory rest, in the event of urgent work, rescue or repair work or work aimed at preventing the loss of perishable goods, do not comply with the requirements of Article 8, paragraph 3, of the Convention, under which compensatory rest of a total duration of at least 24 hours per week shall be granted to workers whose weekly rest has been temporarily suspended or reduced. It recalls that compensatory rest is essential to the protection of the health of workers and may not be replaced by cash compensation. Noting the forthcoming revision of Order No. 22/MLTS/DEGRE of 27 May 1969, the Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any progress made with a view to guaranteeing all workers compensatory rest of a total duration of at least 24 hours for each period of seven days.

Furthermore, the Committee notes that a new collective agreement applicable to the commerce sector was signed on 9 March 2007. Given that this document is not available to the Office, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide a copy of this text with its next report. The Committee would be particularly interested in establishing whether the new National Collective Agreement for Commerce includes the clause contained in section 40(2) of the former national collective agreement for commerce of 1979, which provided for financial remuneration only for overtime work performed on the weekly rest day, which has been the subject of comments by the Committee for several years.

Part V of the report form. Practical application. The Committee requests the Government to provide general information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, including, for example, extracts from the reports of the inspection services indicating the number of violations reported relating to weekly rest and the sanctions imposed, information concerning the number of workers covered by the legislation, copies of collective agreements containing relevant clauses, etc.