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

Hours of Work (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1930 (No. 30) - Nicaragua (Ratification: 1934)

Article 3 of the Convention. Limits on daily and weekly hours of work. The Committee notes the comments of the Trade Union Unification Confederation (CUS) dated 30 August 2011 alleging that the Ministry of Labour does not monitor or control working time violations and that in the interest of preserving their employment workers in most commerce and offices are obliged to work more than eight hours per day and 48 hours per week. In particular, the CUS denounces the situation in “call centres” where workers are asked to work more than eight hours a day, without being paid overtime in exchange of employment stability. The Committee requests the Government to transmit any comments it may wish to make in response to the observations of CUS.

Moreover, 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.