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

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee notes that, while the definition of the weekly rest day under section 2(1) of the Employment and Industrial Relations Act (Cap. 452) of 2002, is consistent with this Article, section 3 of the Weekly Rest and Annual Vacation Leave National Standard Order (38/89) of 1989, by explicitly restricting the entitlement to a minimum of one day of rest to full-time workers and thus excluding part-time workers, contravenes the wide scope of the Convention. Furthermore, the Part-Time Employees Regulations 2002 (Legal Notice 427/2002), with the purpose to remove discrimination against part-time workers, regulates specified issues, such as annual and sick leave, income supplements or vocational training, but not weekly rest. Even if in practice the majority of part-time workers enjoy at least one day of weekly rest, this should be made legally binding on employers. The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate any measures envisaged to ensure that the principle of weekly rest also applies to part‑time workers.

Article 8, paragraph 3. The Government indicated that the parliamentary discussion on the envisaged provision, to grant compensatory rest, in addition to overtime pay, to employees who are required to work on a weekly rest day, had not yet finished. The Committee expresses the hope that the amendment will soon be adopted and give full effect to this Article. It asks the Government to keep the Office informed of any progress achieved.