Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106) - Malta (Ratification: 1988)

Other comments on C106

Direct Request

Replies received to the issues raised in a direct request which do not give rise to further comments

2022

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Articles 7(2) and 8(3) of the Convention. Permanent and temporary exemptions. Compensatory rest. In its previous comment, the Committee had noted that, under section 14 of the Organization of Working Time Regulations (L.N. 247/2003, as amended by L.N. 427/2007), where the application of the normal weekly rest scheme is excluded and as a result a worker is required to work during a period which would otherwise be a period of rest, the employer is under the obligation to grant such compensatory rest period that can be reasonably considered as equivalent to the normal 24-hour rest period. Furthermore, in exceptional cases in which it may not be possible for objective reasons to grant such a period of rest, the employer must afford appropriate protection to safeguard the worker’s health and safety excluding monetary compensation or other material benefits. The Committee had considered that this provision, in its qualified wording, was not fully consistent with the Convention which requires in unequivocal terms that compensatory rest of a total duration at least equivalent to 24 hours be granted in all cases of authorized exemptions, whether permanent or temporary. The Government’s most recent report contains no information on this issue. The Committee wishes to refer to paragraph 153 of its 1984 General Survey on Working time concerning permanent exemptions to Article 7(2) of the Convention where it is stated that “all persons to whom such special schemes apply shall be entitled, in respect of each period of seven days, to rest of a total duration at least equivalent to the period provided for in Article 6, that is 24 hours”. Similarly, regarding temporary exemptions, as indicated in paragraph 173 of the General Survey, Article 8(3) of the Convention states that “any person working on the weekly rest day must be granted compensatory rest”. The Committee requests the Government to consider replacing the expressions used by section 14 of the Organization of Working Time Regulations, which refers to periods “reasonably equivalent”, to “objective reasons” and to “appropriate protection”, by provisions ensuring explicitly to the worker deprived of weekly rest a compensatory rest of equivalent duration as required under Articles 7(2) and 8(3) of the Convention.