Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

The Committee notes with regret 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 4 of the Convention. Total or partial exceptions. Section 13(3) of the Organisation of Working Time Act of 1997 provides that an employer may, in lieu of granting an employee in each period of seven days a rest period of at least 24 hours, grant to him or her, in the next following days, two rest periods each of which must be a period of at least 24 consecutive hours. The Committee recalls that, according to Article 4, the public authority may authorize total suspension from the provisions of Article 2(1) which enshrines a weekly rest period of 24 consecutive hours in every period of seven days, special regard being had to all proper humanitarian and economic considerations and after consultation with responsible associations of employers and workers, wherever such exist. The provisions of section 13(3) of the Organisation of Working Time Act of 1997 may lead to abuse since they leave it entirely to the determination of the employer to suspend a weekly rest period, without being subject to any safeguards. According to the intention of Article 4, a proportionality test is needed between the interest of the workers to have a weekly rest period in the course of each period of seven days and the objective need of some industrial undertakings to suspend the weekly rest period for economic reasons. The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate how it ensures the full application of Article 4 of the Convention.

Article 5. Compensatory rest. According to section 14(1) of the Organisation of Working Time Act of 1997, an employee who is required to work on Sunday shall be compensated by remuneration or paid time off or by a combination of remuneration and paid time off. The Committee recalls that Article 5 requires, as far as possible, compensatory rest, irrespective of monetary compensation. It therefore asks the Government to indicate whether Article 5 is applied in practice.

Finally, the Committee takes this opportunity to recall that, based on the conclusions and proposals of the Working Party on Policy regarding the Revision of Standards, the ILO Governing Body has decided that the ratification of up to date Conventions, including the Weekly Rest (Industry) Convention, 1921 (No. 14), and the Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106), should be encouraged because they continue to respond to current needs (see GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2, paragraphs 17–18). 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.