Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in reply to its previous direct request and wishes to draw its attention to the following points.

Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee notes that a worker who has concluded, in conformity with sections 110 and 111 of the Labour Code, a supplementary employment contract with his employer or with another employer may work up to 12 hours a day subject to the uninterrupted period of at least 12 hours of rest between working days, provided under section 152 of the Code. The Committee wishes to recall in this respect that the limits to hours of work fixed by Article 2 of the Convention are obligatory in character, notwithstanding the permanent or temporary exceptions expressly set forth in the Convention, and that they cannot be subject to alteration by contract, even where this is provided for by the law. In the view of the Committee, sections 110, 111 and 113 of the Labour Code are not in conformity with the provisions of the Convention in that they allow the limits of eight hours a day and 48 hours a week specified therein to be exceeded. Consequently it requests the Government to take all necessary measures to establish daily and weekly limits to working hours in conformity to those set forth by the Convention and by section 136 of the Labour Code, even in cases of internal and external accumulation of jobs.

Article 4. Section 142(2) of the Labour Code stipulates that an employer may establish a summarized calculation of working hours over a period not exceeding six months for continuous production processes. Paragraph 4 of the same section fixes the maximum working day at 12 hours. The Committee notes that under the terms of these provisions, it is possible to exceed the limit of 56 hours in the week on the average required by Article 4 of the Convention. It therefore requests the Government to take all necessary steps to bring its legislation into conformity with the requirements of the Convention on this point.

Article 5. The Committee again refers to section 142(2) of the Labour Code, which allows the employer to establish a summarized calculation of working hours over a period not exceeding 6 months for work where a daily calculation is not possible. It also refers to paragraph 4 of the same section, which fixes maximum daily working hours at 12 hours. In this regard it requests the Government to indicate the extent to which average daily hours of work are assured not to exceed the limits set forth in Article 5, paragraph 2, of the Convention and section 136 of the Labour Code.

Part III of the report form. The Committee notes that a working party has been established to draw up a list of work classified as being continuous production processes within the meaning of Article 4 of the Convention. It requests the Government to supply a copy of this list when it is available. It further requests it to supply all the other information called for under this part of the report form.