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

Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1) - Belgium (Ratification: 1926)

The Committee notes the Government's report and the information given in reply to its 1994 direct request. It notes again that no amendment has been made to the regulations relating to working hours since the adoption of the Act of 17 March 1987 respecting the introduction of new work rules in enterprises, which authorizes generally the use of a calculation based on normal average working hours over a period of up to one year with the sole restriction that daily working hours do not exceed 12 hours. The Government indicates in its report that these regulations were set in agreement with the social partners and constitute a means of making working hours flexible, made necessary by the economic context. Finally, the Government suggests revision of the Convention.

On this matter, the Committee wishes to draw the Government's attention to the fact that respect for daily and weekly limits on working hours are essential guarantees for safeguarding workers' health and welfare and protecting them against the possibility of abuse. Hence the possibility of establishing the daily hours of work over a period longer than the week, provided in Article 5 of the Convention, is restricted to cases in which the limits on normal working hours set out in Article 2 are recognized as inapplicable. This may concern, in particular, branches of activity in which the nature of the work, technical reasons or seasonal variations and pressure of work require an irregular distribution of working time. In this context, the Committee indicated in its 1967 General Survey on hours of work that cases where calculation of the normal average working hours over a period exceeding a week is permitted must be exceptional and restricted to certain branches of activity where technical requirements so justified (paragraph 142).

The Committee must point out once again that the Act of 17 March 1987 respecting the introduction of new work rules in enterprises by admitting, in general and in all sectors of activity, exceptions to normal working hours are firmly against the provisions of Article 5 of the Convention. The Government is urged to take the Committee's comments into account in order to take the necessary measures to ensure conformity of the national regulations with the Convention.