Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1) - Lithuania (Ratification: 1931)

The Committee notes the Government's last report and the information provided in reply to its previous comments on the legislative provisions which give effect to Articles 2 and 6 of the Convention. In this respect, the Committee wishes to draw the Government's attention to the abuses which may result from the strict application of section 44 of the Labour Code. This section envisages the possibility of having recourse to an irregular arrangement of daily working hours calculated as an average on an annual basis in certain branches of activity which require the irregular arrangement of working hours due to the nature of the work or technical reasons and subject to an authorization by the labour inspectorate. This arrangement of working hours is only limited by the obligation to restrict weekly working hours to a maximum of 60 hours. On this point, the Committee recalls that, although Article 2(b) of the Convention does indeed provide for the possibility of having recourse to an irregular arrangement of normal working hours, the daily limit of the eight hours may not be exceeded by more than one hour. The Committee hopes that the Government will take into account the above comments in order to envisage the necessary change in the national legislation.

Furthermore, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide, in so far as possible, the information requested under Parts III, V and VI of the report form, which are useful for it to assess the manner in which effect is given in practice to the provisions of the Convention.