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Weekly Rest (Industry) Convention, 1921 (No. 14) - Solomon Islands (RATIFICATION: 1985)

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Articles 4 and 5 of the Convention. Total or partial exceptions. Compensatory rest. The Committee recalls its previous comments in which it noted that section 11(f) of the Labour Act (Cap. 75) permitted broad exceptions to the principle that no worker may be required to work on more than six days in one week without any measure being taken for granting compensatory rest. The Government again indicates that exceptions are strictly limited to persons employed in essential services, defined in section 2(7)(a) of the Essential Services Act (Cap. 12) to include a wide range of industrial and commercial services such as water, electricity, fire, health, hospital, sanitary, port services, telecommunications, air traffic services, air transportation, immigration, meteorology, customs, broadcasting, post office, transport essential to the operation of these services, and the supply and distribution of fuel, oil and petrol essential to the maintenance of these services. The Committee observes, however, that section 11(f) of the Labour Act also exempts persons employed in occupations in which work on customary rest days is expressly provided for in the contract of employment.

In this connection, the Committee is bound to recall that the basic standard defined in Article 2 of the Convention is that workers are entitled to an uninterrupted weekly rest period comprising not less than 24 hours in the course of each period of seven days, and this rest period should, to the extent possible, be the same for all and should coincide with the day already designated by tradition or custom as day of weekly rest. The Convention is thus articulated around three basic principles: regularity (rest to be taken at seven-day intervals), continuity (rest of at least 24 consecutive hours) and uniformity (weekly break to be taken simultaneously by all workers). The Convention permits partial or total exceptions to the principle of weekly rest, in particular when the need to keep certain establishments in operation due to their utility or exceptional conditions would so require. However, exceptions to the normal weekly rest must be limited, clearly defined, and authorized only after consultations with the representative organizations of employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned. The Committee considers that as it is currently worded, section 11(f) of the Labour Act goes beyond what is prescribed by Article 4(1) of the Convention. The Committee therefore asks the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that exceptions to the general weekly rest scheme are authorized only under the limited conditions set out in Article 4 of the Convention and that any suspensions or diminutions give rise to compensatory rest, as far as possible, irrespective of any monetary compensation.

Part V of the report form. Practical application. The Committee requests the Government to provide up-to-date information on the practical application of the Convention, including, for instance, statistics on the number of workers covered by the relevant legislation, copies of collective agreements containing provisions on weekly rest, and extracts from reports of the labour inspection services showing the number of violations of the relevant legislation observed and sanctions imposed.

The Committee once again recalls that according to the relevant decisions of the ILO Governing Body (see GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2, paragraphs 17–18), the Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106), which essentially transposes the standards of Convention No. 14 into other sectors of activity, is an up-to-date instrument whose ratification should be encouraged. The ratification of Convention No. 106 is all the more advisable as the labour legislation of the Solomon Islands is of general application and does not regulate separately the sectors of industry and commerce. The Committee accordingly invites the Government to contemplate ratifying Convention No. 106 and to keep the Office informed of any decisions taken or envisaged in this respect.

Finally, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the conclusions of the ILO Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Working Time Arrangements, held in October 2011, according to which the provisions of existing ILO standards relating to daily and weekly hours of work, weekly rest, paid annual leave, part-time and night work, remain relevant in the twenty-first century, and should be promoted in order to facilitate decent work. The Experts also emphasized the importance of working time, its regulation, and organization and management, to: (a) workers and their health and well-being, including opportunities for balancing working and non-work time; (b) the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises; and (c) effective responses to economic and labour market crises.