Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 2009, publiée 99ème session CIT (2010)

Article 3 of the Convention. Prohibition of night work of women. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s reply about the need to undertake broad consultations with the social partners with a view to harmonizing the national legislation with the principle of gender equality and eventually ratifying the 1990 Protocol to Convention No. 89. The Committee recalls, in this connection, that, should the Government decide, in consultation with its social partners, to remove all restrictions on women’s night work for reasons of equality between men and women and non-discrimination in employment and occupation, it may wish to consider the ratification of the Night Work Convention, 1990 (No. 171), which is not devised as a gender-specific instrument but focuses on the safety and health protection of all night workers irrespective of gender in all branches and occupations. In case the Government decides that the latter instrument better reflects the socio-economic needs of the country and corresponds more closely to the Government’s priorities in matters of women’s employment promotion, it will have to formally terminate its obligations under Convention No. 89 when the Convention will again be open to denunciation, that is from 27 February 2011 to 27 February 2012. Recalling that the Committee has been inviting the Government since 2000 to take the necessary steps in these matters, it requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any further developments concerning the ratification of the 1990 Protocol to Convention No. 89 or, alternatively, of Convention No. 171.