CMNT_TITLE

Repetition

Articles 4 and 8 of the Convention. Exceptions. The Committee has been commenting on section 271(2)(c) of General Labour Act No. 2/2000, which provides that women may be authorized to work at night in cases of shift work if they so agree, thus introducing broader exceptions to the prohibition of night work for women than those permitted under the Convention. The Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the 1990 Protocol to Convention No. 89, which allows for negotiated exemptions from the prohibition of night work and variations in the duration of the night period, and has been inviting the Government to give favourable consideration to the ratification of either the 1990 Protocol or the Night Work Convention, 1990 (No. 171), which covers all sectors and applies to all night workers irrespective of gender.

In light of the observations made in 2008 by the National Union of Angolan Workers (UNTA) on the application of the Convention, and also in view of the fact that the Government has not yet taken any measures to ensure the conformity of its law and practice with relevant ILO standards, the Committee is obliged to reiterate that the present trend is to replace restrictions on women’s night work with gender-sensitive regulations offering safety and health protection to both men and women. Noting that many countries are in the process of easing or eliminating legal restrictions on women’s employment during the night with the aim of improving women’s opportunities in employment and strengthening non-discrimination, the Committee further recalls that member States are under an obligation to review periodically their protective legislation in light of scientific and technological knowledge with a view to revising all gender-specific provisions and discriminatory constraints. This obligation stems from Article 11(3) of the 1979 United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (to which, parenthetically, Angola is a party since September 1986), as later reaffirmed in point 5(b) of the 1985 ILO resolution on equal opportunities and equal treatment for men and women in employment. The Committee therefore requests the Government to review in a timely manner all legislative restrictions concerning the employment of women during the night with due regard to the relevant provisions of the 1990 Protocol or Convention No. 171, and to keep the Office informed of any decision envisaged or taken with respect to the eventual ratification of either instrument.