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

Hours of Work (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1930 (No. 30) - Paraguay (Ratification: 1966)

Article 7(2) of the Convention. Temporary exceptions – Limits on authorized overtime. The Committee notes that, under section 201 of the Labour Code, additional hours may not exceed three per day and the overall number of hours of work in the week may not exceed 57. It also notes that, under section 59(2) of Public Service Act No.1.626 of 27 December 2000, additional hours may not exceed three hours per day and eight hours per week. The Committee recalls, in this connection, that in the interest of preventing any possible abuse, the Convention requires the adoption of regulations – after consultations with employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned – which must set the limits to the total number of additional hours which may be allowed in the day but also in the year. As the Committee emphasized in its General Survey of 2005 on hours of work (paragraph 144), “even though the establishment of specific limits to the total number of additional hours is left to the competent authorities, this does not mean that such authorities have unlimited discretion in this regard. Taking into account the spirit of the Convention, it is appropriate to conclude that such limits must be “reasonable” and they must be prescribed in line with the general goal of the Convention, namely to establish the eight-hour day and 48-hour week as a legal standard of hours of work in order to provide protection against undue fatigue and to ensure reasonable leisure and opportunities for recreation and social life”. The Committee recalls that, at the time of the adoption of the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1), the limits considered to be permissible amounted to 150 hours a year in the case of temporary exceptions (abnormal pressure of work due to special circumstances) and 60 hours a week in the case of permanent exceptions (work inherently intermittent or complementary). The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate how effect is given to this requirement of the Convention.