Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Weekly Rest (Industry) Convention, 1921 (No. 14) - Zimbabwe (Ratification: 1980)

Articles 2 to 7 of the Convention. Weekly rest – Implementing legislation. The Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the fact that apart from section 14C of the Labour Act (Chapter 28:01), which provides that every employee shall be entitled to not less than 24 continuous hours of rest each week, either on the same day of every week, or on a day agreed by the employer and employee, the general labour legislation does not contain provisions giving effect to several requirements of the Convention, for instance, the need to ensure, as far as possible, that weekly rest is granted simultaneously to all workers and that it coincides wherever possible with the traditional or customary rest day (Article 2(2),(3)), the need to specify the conditions under which total or partial exceptions to the normal weekly rest scheme may be authorized (Article 4), the need to provide as far as possible for compensatory rest every time workers are required to perform work on a weekly rest day (Article 5), and also the need to make provisions for the posting of notices informing the workers of weekly rest schedules (Article 7). The Government indicated in consecutive reports that detailed provisions on weekly rest are in fact incorporated in certain collective bargaining agreements, such as the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) for the cigarette and tobacco industry, and the CBA for chemicals and fertilizers that expressly provide for compensatory rest. The Committee wishes to observe, in this regard, that appropriate legislative provisions might be necessary to better regulate the entitlement to weekly rest of those workers who may not be covered by any sector-specific collective agreement (possibly through ministerial regulations issued under the enabling provision of section 17 of the Labour Act). The Committee accordingly requests the Government to consider necessary steps to ensure that the national legislation fully implements the specific provisions of the Convention highlighted above. The Committee would also be grateful if the Government would forward copies of all the collective bargaining agreements referred to in its latest report, for example, the CBA for the construction industry (SI 244), the CBA for the fibre and cement industry (SI 325), the CBA for the mining industry (SI 152), the CBA for cigarette and tobacco, and the CBA for chemicals and fertilizers.