Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

Night Work (Women) Convention (Revised), 1948 (No. 89) - Paraguay (Ratification: 1966)

The Committee notes the Government’s report which confirms that the general labour legislation no longer provides for a general ban on women’s night work with the exception of pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers as well as minors between 15 and 18 years of age. The Committee also notes the Government’s indication that it might consider the denunciation of the Convention in the near future as long as the consultations with employers’ and workers’ organizations would give support to the view that this Convention contains discriminatory provisions. It is therefore clear to the Committee that the Convention is currently given no effect in either law or practice.

The Committee takes this opportunity to draw the Government’s attention to paragraphs 191-202 of the 2001 General Survey on the night work of women in industry in which the Committee, referring to the present-day relevance of the ILO instruments on women’s night work, concluded that there can be no doubt that the current trend was clearly in favour of lifting all restrictions on women’s night work and formulating gender-sensitive night work regulations offering safety and health protection to both men and women. It also noted that many countries were in the process of easing or eliminating legal restrictions on women’s employment during the night with the aim of improving women’s opportunities in employment and strengthening non-discrimination. The Committee further recalled that member States were under an obligation to review periodically their protective legislation in light of scientific and technological knowledge with a view to revising all gender-specific provisions and discriminatory constraints. This obligation stems from Article 11(3) of the 1979 United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (to which parenthetically Paraguay acceded in 1987), as later reaffirmed in point 5(b) of the 1985 ILO resolution on equal opportunities and equal treatment for men and women in employment.

More concretely, the Committee considered that the Protocol of 1990 to Convention No. 89 was designed as a tool for smooth transition from outright prohibition to free access to night employment, especially for those States that wished to offer the possibility of night employment to women workers but felt that some institutional protection should remain in place to avoid exploitative practices and a sudden worsening of the social conditions of women workers, whereas the Night Work Convention, 1990 (No. 171), was drafted for those countries which would be prepared to abolish all women-specific restrictions on night work (except for those aimed at protecting women’s reproductive and infant nursing role) and offer appropriate protection to all night workers irrespective of gender and occupation.

In the light of the foregoing observations, the Committee once again invites the Government to give favourable consideration to the ratification of either Convention No. 171, which shifts the emphasis from a specific category of workers and sector of economic activity to the safety and health protection of all night workers, or the 1990 Protocol which affords considerable flexibility in the application of Convention No. 89 while remaining focused on the protection of female workers. The Committee asks the Government to keep the Office informed of any decision taken in this regard.