Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Weekly Rest (Industry) Convention, 1921 (No. 14) - Côte d'Ivoire (Ratification: 1960)

Articles 4 and 5 of the Convention. Total or partial exceptions and compensatory rest. The Committee notes the Government’s indications that the regulatory texts, including Decree No. 96-203 of 7 March 1996 implementing Act No. 95/15 of 12 January 1995 establishing the Labour Code, are only adopted by the competent authority after consultation of the Labour Advisory Committee, which is composed of equal numbers of employer and worker representatives.

Moreover, the Government indicates in its report that, in practice, any employee deprived of his weekly rest receives compensatory rest during the week, fixed in agreement with his/her employer in accordance with their respective interests. Further to its previous comment, the Committee notes the absence of legal or regulatory provisions providing for compensatory rest for employees whose weekly rest is suspended or reduced. Given that the employment relationship is characterized by workers’ subordination to their employer, the Committee again draws the Government’s attention to the risk of abuses arising from the difficulty of ensuring, outside any legal or regulatory framework, that the interests of the employee are duly taken into account when compensatory rest periods are determined. The Committee therefore again requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or contemplated to ensure that the national legislation is the basis in practice on which compensatory rest is determined.

Article 6. List of exceptions. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether other regulations providing for exceptions with respect to weekly rest have been adopted pursuant to section 24.1 of the Labour Code and, if so, to send a copy of them to the Office.

Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee notes that, since the ratification of the Convention in 1960, the Government has not provided any information on its application in practice. The Committee requests the Government to provide a general appraisal of the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, including, for example, extracts from the reports of the inspection services and details of the number of workers protected by the legislation, the number and nature of reported infringements, and the corrective measures taken. Finally, the Committee again requests the Government to consider the possibility of ratifying the Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106), especially as the general labour legislation makes no distinction between industry and commerce, and to keep the Office informed of any decisions taken or contemplated in this respect.

Finally, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the conclusions of the ILO Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Working Time Arrangements, held in October 2011, according to which the provisions of existing ILO standards relating to daily and weekly hours of work, weekly rest, paid annual leave, part-time and night work, remain relevant in the twenty-first century, and should be promoted in order to facilitate decent work. The Experts also emphasized the importance of working time, its regulation, and organization and management, to: (a) workers and their health and well-being, including opportunities for balancing working and non-work time; (b) the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises; and (c) effective responses to economic and labour market crises.