Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Hours of Work (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1930 (No. 30) - Iraq (Ratification: 1962)

Article 7, paragraph 3, of the Convention. Maximum limits on additional hours of work. The Committee has been commenting for a number of years on section 63(2)(c) of the Labour Code of 1987 which provides for the possibility of working up to four additional hours in a day in non-industrial activities. Despite the Government’s indications in its reports of 1992 and 1998 that legislative measures had been taken to determine an annual limit on the number of additional hours and that the relevant text would be supplied as soon as it was published, the Committee notes with regret that the new draft Labour Code of 2007, which is in the process of finalization and is currently examined by the State Consultative Council, maintains the same provision in identical terms (draft section 63.6(c)). As the Committee has pointed out in previous comments, the single reference to a daily limit of overtime – without determining the maximum number of hours of overtime which may be permitted in the year – can imply weekly or annual working hours that are far too high and which could be contrary to the spirit of the Convention. In this regard, the Committee wishes to refer to paragraph 144 of its 2005 General Survey on hours of work in which it noted that even though the establishment of specific limits to the total number of additional hours is left to the competent authorities, this does not mean that such authorities have unlimited discretion in this regard. Such limits must be reasonable and they must be prescribed in line with the general goal of Conventions Nos 1 and 30, namely to establish the eight-hour day and 48-hour week as a legal standard of hours of work in order to provide protection against undue fatigue and to ensure reasonable leisure and opportunities for recreation and social life. The Committee hopes that in the ongoing process of revising the Labour Code, the Government will take all necessary measures to establish, within reasonable limits, the maximum number of additional hours which may be allowed in the year in respect of temporary exceptions, as required by this Article of the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of all future developments in this regard and to transmit a copy of the new legislation once it has been adopted.