Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Article 6(1) of the Convention. Exclusion of official and customary public holidays from the annual holiday with pay. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the explanations provided by the Government concerning the various types of public holidays, namely (i) ordinary public holidays, during which work may be performed (feriados communes), (ii) statutory paid public holidays, which are paid and on which it is compulsory for work to cease (feriados pagados) and (iii) non-working public holidays which are not necessarily paid (feriados no laborables). In this respect, the Committee notes in particular the indication that, although there is no collective agreement authorizing the counting of common public holidays in annual holidays with pay, individual and enterprise agreements allow this practice. It is the Committee’s understanding that such agreements allow daily workers to receive remuneration that they would not have received had such public holidays been excluded from holidays with pay. The Committee recalls, as it has been doing for 26 years, that the Convention does not allow public holidays of whatever sort to be counted as part of the annual holiday with pay. It therefore urges the Government to take the necessary measures to bring the legislation into conformity with the Convention on this point.

Article 7(2). Payment in advance of holidays for public servants. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that public servants are entitled to payment for their holidays, but not at the higher holiday rate, which is exclusively reserved for workers in the private sector and the public non-state sector, as well as for rural and domestic workers. However, it notes that the Government’s report does not contain any new information concerning the payment in advance of the holidays of public servants, on which the Committee has been making observations for many years. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the legal or other provisions guaranteeing the payment of the remuneration due in respect of holidays with pay to public servants in advance of their holidays.