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1. The Committee notes the Government's comments relating to the observation made by the Union of Workers of the Brewery "Backus and Johnston S.A.". According to the trade union, a shift system is applied in the enterprise under which, following seven weeks during which 56 hours a week have been worked, each worker is granted only one additional rest day to compensate for the extra days worked. The trade union referred the matter to the labour courts alleging violation of section 25 of the Political Constitution, of Convention No. 1 and of the collective agreements concluded between the parties. The court decision, which was transmitted to the Committee, recognizes that over the seven- week shift patterns worked by the teams covered by the collective agreement, 24 hours of rest were allowed for 48 hours of work, which does not appear to infringe the provisions of the legislation that is in force. The Government states to the Committee that the trade union's complaint is groundless and that the trade union, availing itself of the rights guaranteed under national legislation, appealed against the above-mentioned decision on the grounds of non-compliance with labour legislation and the Convention. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply the text of the ruling handed down by the higher court in the case brought by the Union of Workers of the Brewery "Backus and Johnston S.A." so that it is able to assess the manner in which effect has been given to the provisions of the Convention which, with the exception of the provisions of Article 4 relating to processes carried on continuously, do not authorize average working hours to exceed 48 in the week (Article 2(c) and Article 5, paragraph 2, of the Convention). The Committee therefore also requests the Government to provide, in accordance with Article 7 of the Convention, full information as to working of the agreements mentioned in Article 5, namely a list of the agreements with an indication of the industries and workers covered and, where possible, the text of the agreements. Please also indicate whether courts of law or other tribunals have issued decisions involving questions of principle relating to the application of the Convention.

2. The Committee notes the information on the activities of the labour inspectorate in 1993. It requests the Government to indicate in its next report, if the relevant statistics exist, the number of workers covered by the legislation, the number and nature of violations reported and the number of overtime hours worked in the cases referred to in Articles 3 and 6 of the Convention.

The Government is asked to report in detail in 1996.