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The Committee notes the information provided in the Government’s report, in particular the adoption of the General Labour Act of 11 February 2000.

Article 1 of the Convention. The Committee notes that under section 107(2) of the General Labour Act, workers who perform on the employer’s behalf functions of trust or control, and workers who regularly work in varying places outside the fixed workplace, such that their work is not directly supervised or controlled, may be exempted from the working time rules, subject to authorization by the General Labour Inspectorate. The Committee requests the Government to specify whether any workers coming within the scope of the Convention have been exempted by the General Labour Inspectorate and, if so, whether their hours of work and overtime pay are regulated in accordance with the requirements of Articles 2 and 6 of the Convention.

Article 5. The Committee notes that under section 120(1) of the General Labour Act, stand-by arrangements may be made for certain categories of workers. The Committee recalls that in the absence of a clear definition of "stand-by" in the Convention, if the time spent on stand-by is time during which the employee is effectively at the disposal of the employer, then these hours must be regarded as working time and be paid their normal rate of pay. Moreover, the Convention does not provide for alternative working time arrangements such as those provided for in section 121(1) of the General Labour Act. The Committee reminds the Government that the limits prescribed in Articles 2 and 5 of the Convention should be considered as elementary guarantees to safeguard the health and welfare of workers and protect them against the risk of abuse. The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate how it is ensured that the time spent on stand-by and alternative working time arrangements conforms to the limits contained in the Convention and to consider amendments, where necessary, to bring its legislation into line with the Convention in this respect.

Article 6. The Committee notes that section 102(2)(d), (e) and (g) of the General Labour Act allows for overtime work for the performance of tasks which fall outside the scope of temporary exceptions specified in the Convention, in particular, overtime for the substitution of workers, movement, transformation or processing of easily perishable products, and extension of work up to 30 minutes after closure. Recalling that temporary exceptions should only be allowed in exceptional cases of pressure of work, the Committee requests the Government to consider appropriate modifications in order to bring the General Labour Act into closer conformity with the Convention in this regard. It also requests the Government to clarify whether all regulations in respect of supplementary hours of work are made after consultations with the organizations of employers and workers concerned.

Article 7. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply in its next report detailed information on: (i) the enterprises which are deemed to be necessarily continuous in character for the purposes of Article 4 of the Convention; (ii) the working of any agreements falling within the meaning of Article 5 of the Convention; and (iii) the regulations of permanent and temporary exceptions, as required under this Article of the Convention and Part III of the report form.

Article 8, paragraph 2. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether it is an offence to employ any person beyond the maximum number of hours fixed by law, and if so, to specify the legal provisions establishing appropriate sanctions in case of infringements.

Part V of the report form. The Committee requests the Government to provide general information on the practical application of the Convention, including, for instance, statistics on the number of workers, by occupational category and gender, who are covered by the relevant legislation, extracts from official reports and information on any difficulties encountered in the implementation of the Convention.