Hours of Work (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1930 (No. 30) - Argentina (RATIFICATION: 1950)

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Article 3 of the Convention. Daily and weekly limits of hours of work. The Committee notes the new comments made by the Confederation of Workers of Argentina (CTA) in two separate communications, which were received on 29 and 30 August 2013 and transmitted to the Government on 23 and 26 September 2013. The CTA indicates that section 198 of Act 20.744 on labour contract (LCT), as amended by section 25 of Act 24.013, provides that limits to the normal daily working hours may be established, among others, through collective agreement and accordingly draws attention to the fact that, pursuant to section 198, various methods of calculation of working-time arrangements have been introduced for the sole purpose of getting round the daily or weekly limits on hours of work. As a result, the only limit that is complied with is the 12-hour rest between finishing work on one day and starting work on the next day. The CTA therefore considers that section 198 of the LCT should be amended in order to allow collective bargaining to establish limits on working hours only if such limits are more favourable than those prescribed by the law. Moreover, the CTA expresses the view that the Government should ratify the Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106). The Committee requests the Government to transmit any comments it may wish to make in response to the latest observations of the CTA.

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Articles 3 and 4 of the Convention. Daily and weekly limits of hours of work. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in reply to the comments made in 2011 by the Confederation of Workers of Argentina (CTA) concerning alleged widespread working time irregularities in the commerce and road transport sectors. The Committee notes, in particular, the Government’s reference to Decree No. 16.115/33 implementing Act No. 11.544 which reflects the provisions of Article 2 of the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1), concerning the variable distribution of working hours within a week and the averaging of hours of work in the case of shift work. The Government further refers to section 197 of Act No. 20.744 on labour contract which requires a minimum rest period of 12 hours between two consecutive working days, thus implying that no worker may be employed for more than 12 hours per day. In this respect, the Committee wishes to point out that Conventions Nos 1 and 30 allow the limit of eight hours a day and 48 hours a week to be exceeded only in very limited and clearly defined circumstances. For instance, Convention No. 1 prescribes an overall daily work limit of nine hours in the case of variable distribution of working hours within a week while Convention No. 30 provides that the maximum hours of work in the week may be so arranged that hours of work in any day do not exceed ten hours. Therefore, the “compressed work-week” arrangements (i.e. four consecutive 12-hour workdays followed by three days off) referred to in the comments of the CTA would seem to be incompatible with the requirements of the Convention. As the Committee has concluded in paragraph 213 of its General Survey of 2005 on hours of work, “it appears that in many cases compressed work-weeks are likely to be in contravention of the requirements of Convention No. 1, Convention No. 30, or both, in particular due to the number of daily hours which are typically worked under these arrangements”. For example, compressed work-week arrangements, where work is performed by two teams in 12-hour shifts, would appear to be incompatible with the requirements of both Conventions Nos 1 and 30, because the daily work may exceed the nine-hour and ten-hour limits prescribed respectively. The Committee accordingly hopes that the Government will consider measures to ensure that working time arrangements fully comply with the limit set out in Article 4 of the Convention. In addition, the Committee would appreciate receiving additional information on the levels of over-employment (“sobreocupación horaria”) and any measures taken or envisaged for the protection of the workers concerned.

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Article 3 of the Convention. Daily and weekly limits of hours of work. The Committee notes the comments of the Confederation of Workers of Argentina (CTA), which were received on 1 September 2011 and transmitted to the Government on 16 September 2011, concerning the application of this Convention and of the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1). The CTA denounces the laxity and inefficiency of the system of labour inspection with respect to working time and indicates that in 2010 the proportion of workers who worked more than 8 hours a day exceeded 35 per cent. According to the CTA, the highest number of working time irregularities are recorded in the sectors of commerce (especially retail shops and supermarkets) and road transport but the system of control and supervision is deficient. Moreover, the CTA refers to section 1 of Act No. 11544 of 12 September 1929, which provides that the hours of work may not exceed eight in the day or 48 in the week, and considers that in its current wording (eight-hour day, or – instead of and – 48-hour week) it appears to authorize the so-called “compressed workweek” (i.e. four consecutive workdays of 12 hours followed by three days off). Furthermore, in the view of the CTA, shift work arrangements are known to be most harmful to the workers’ health and family life and are not consistent with either the letter or the spirit of Conventions Nos 1 and 30. The Committee requests the Government to transmit any comments it may wish to make in response to the observations of CTA.

In addition, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the conclusions of the ILO Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Working Time Arrangements, held in October 2011, according to which the provisions of existing ILO standards relating to daily and weekly hours of work, weekly rest, paid annual leave, part-time and night work, remain relevant in the twenty-first century, and should be promoted in order to facilitate decent work. The Experts also emphasized the importance of working time, its regulation, and organization and management, to: (a) workers and their health and well-being, including opportunities for balancing working and non-work time; (b) the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises; and (c) effective responses to economic and labour market crises.