Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1993, published 80th ILC session (1993)

Forty-Hour Week Convention, 1935 (No. 47) - New Zealand (Ratification: 1938)

1. The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report and the comments made in 1991 and 1992 by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU). It notes, from the Government's report, that the Employment Contracts Act, 1991, repealed the Labour Relations Act of 1987, which applied the principle of the 40-hour week in collective agreements or awards. The principle of the 40-hour week is still contained in the Minimum Wage Act of 1983, as amended in 1991. It now applies to all workers (with the exception of seafarers), whether their employment contracts are individual or collective. Exceptions can be made with the agreement of the parties. The Government supplies data indicating that the principle of the 40-hour week has remained the standard in most of the contracts examined. It also refers to trends in working time arrangements and changes in the criteria used to define overtime hours and their remuneration rates.

2. For its part, the NZCTU notes that the new Employment Contracts Act has eliminated the mechanisms for protecting the 40-hour week and that as a consequence working hours can be negotiated on an individual basis by workers and employers. According to the NZCTU, the facts show a net tendency for the 40-hour week to be exceeded (for example, in 1992, 30 contracts had ordinary hours of work of 50 or more, in comparison with none under the previous legislation). These trends are moving away from achieving the objectives of the Convention. Furthermore, the NZCTU considers that the situation created by the new legislation is not consistent with the obligation placed upon the Government, in accordance with the Convention, to promote the general principle of the 40-hour week.

3. The Committee requests the Government to supply information indicating the extent to which contracts negotiated under the new legislation authorize the extension of the working week beyond the 40-hour week either permanently, or through overtime hours, and to provide information on the wage rates for overtime hours. It would be grateful if the Government would indicate the measures which have been adopted or are envisaged to continue to give effect to the principle set out in the Convention in the event that it is found that the trends in normal working hours are those outlined in the allegations made by the NZCTU.