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

The Committee notes the Government’s first detailed report on the application of the Convention and wishes to draw its attention on the following points.

Article 7 of the Convention. Special weekly rest schemes. The Committee notes that section 47(1) of the Labour Law of 8 July 2003 (Official Gazette No. 43/03) seems to provide for the possibility of setting up special weekly rest schemes, due to the nature of the activity, the organization of the work or the need for more efficient use of assets and more rational distribution of work hours, provided that the workers who are required to work on the day of their weekly recess are granted another day of leave during the following week. The Government indicates that such schemes currently apply to the trade sector, catering, tourism and the construction industry. In this connection, the Committee recalls that the Convention authorizes the introduction of special schemes on an exceptional basis and only when specific conditions, such as the nature of the work or service, the size of the population or the number of persons employed, render impossible the application of the normal weekly rest scheme. It therefore requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged in order to determine the categories of persons or enterprises which may be subject to a special weekly rest scheme while ensuring that the cases justifying recourse to special schemes are limited to the cases provided for by Article 7(1) of the Convention.

Article 8. Temporary exemptions. The Committee notes that sections 42 and 43 of the Labour Law enumerate cases (for instance unexpected pressure of work, natural disaster, epidemics, accident, large-scale pollution, etc.) in which workers may be required to perform overtime work and consequently their weekly rest entitlement might be temporarily affected. The Committee also notes that section 52 of the Labour Law provides that, if an employee works beyond the regular working hours during a certain period in the calendar year and on short‑time basis for the remaining period, his/her weekly rest entitlement may be defined in another way and in another period. Recalling that the Convention only authorizes temporary exemptions to weekly rest in a limited number of cases which do not include the variable distribution of working hours in a calendar year, the Committee requests the Government to provide additional explanations on the practical implementation of this provision.

Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would 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, labour inspection results showing the number of violations of the weekly rest rules observed and penalties imposed, copies of collective agreements containing provisions on weekly rest schemes, etc.