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

Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1) - Egypt (Ratification: 1960)

The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s report, in particular the adoption of the new Labour Law (Act No. 12 of 2003) and its implementing regulations, namely, Decree No. 113 of 2003 determining the preparatory and complementary works and the guard and cleaning works; Decree No. 115 of 2003 determining the works that are intermittent by their nature; Decree No. 122 determining continuous processes and hard and exhausting works; Decree No. 970 of 2003 concerning the establishment of the Labour Consultative Council; and Decree No. 185 of 2003 concerning the model statute of sanctions and work regulations.

Article 6, paragraph 1, of the Convention. Permanent exceptions. Intermittent work. The Committee notes that Decree No. 115 of 2003 includes such general categories of work as all road, rail and air transport, work in ports, storekeeping and work in pharmacies among activities considered to be intermittent within the meaning of section 82 of the Labour Law, which exempts workers engaged in intermittent work from the normal limits on hours of work, provided that their period of stay at the workplace does not exceed 12 hours a day. In this connection, the Committee wishes to emphasize that Article 6(1) of the Convention, which provides for permanent exceptions in cases where attendance at the workplace must necessarily exceed the normal hours of work prescribed by the Convention, allows such exceptions only in relation to persons whose work is essentially intermittent. Therefore, exempting all transport, port or pharmaceuticals workers for the sector they belong to is not in conformity with this Article of the Convention.

The Committee recalls that the question whether all road and rail transport operations could possibly qualify as “intermittent work” has been raised practically since the ratification of the Convention and the Government has indicated on a few instances, last in 1980, that it intended to amend the relevant legislation so as to narrow the exceptions to the normal hours of work to those activities which are genuinely intermittent in nature. The Committee hopes that the Government will take all the necessary measures without further delay in order to bring the national legislation into conformity with the Convention on this point by amending relevant provisions of Decree No. 115 of 2003.

Article 8, paragraph 1(c). Record-keeping of additional hours. The Committee requests the Government to refer to the comments made under Article 11(2)(c) of Convention No. 30.

Part VI of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee requests the Government to provide up to date information on the practical application of the Convention, including, for instance, the approximate number of workers employed at industrial undertakings, labour inspection results showing the number and nature of working time-related offences observed and sanctions imposed, copies of collective agreements containing clauses on working time arrangements, official surveys and studies addressing working time issues, etc.