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

Night Work (Women) Convention (Revised), 1948 (No. 89) - Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ratification: 1960)

Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention. Prohibition of night work by women. The Committee notes the adoption of Act No. 015/2002 of 16 October 2002 issuing the Labour Code, and particularly section 125, which prohibits women from working at night in public or private industrial establishments. It also notes that, in accordance with the same section of the Code, the term “night” signifies the period between 7 p.m. in the evening and 5 a.m. in the morning, which represents ten hours. However, the Convention requires a period of at least 11 consecutive hours, including an interval prescribed by the competent authority of at least seven consecutive hours falling between 10 p.m. in the evening and 7 a.m. in the morning. Moreover, the Committee notes that a decree envisaged in section 128 of the Labour Code is to determine the exceptions which may be granted to the prohibition of night work by women, but that the decree has not yet been adopted. The Committee requests the Government to indicate in future reports any further measures adopted to bring the legislation into conformity with the provisions of the Convention.

In more general terms, the Committee refers to paragraphs 191 to 202 of its 2001 General Survey on the night work of women in industry, in which it observed that the present trend is no doubt to move away from a blanket prohibition against women’s night work and to give the social partners the responsibility for determining the extent of the permitted exemptions. It also noted that many countries are 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 are 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 the Democratic Republic of the Congo became a party in 1986, as 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 the Protocol of 1990 to Convention No. 89 was designed as a tool for the 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. It also suggested that greater efforts should be made by the Office to help those constituents which are still bound by the provisions of Convention No. 89, and which are not yet ready to ratify the new Night Work Convention, 1990 (No. 171), to realize the advantages of bringing their legislation into line with the provisions of the Protocol. The Committee therefore invites the Government to give favourable consideration to the ratification of the 1990 Protocol, which affords greater flexibility in the application of the Convention, while remaining focused on the protection of women workers.