Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Forty-Hour Week Convention, 1935 (No. 47) - New Zealand (Ratification: 1938)

Article 1 of the Convention. Forty-hour week. The Committee notes that, in its observations on the application of the Convention, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU) mentions that the legislation cited in the Government’s report (for example, Minimum Wage Act 1983, Employment Relations Act 2000, Health and Safety Act 1992, Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act 2002 and Health and Safety in Employment Regulations 1995) does not provide adequate support for the principle of a forty-hour work week. According to the NZCTU, nearly one third of New Zealand employees works more than 40 hours per week in their main job. The NZCTU also mentions that while this rate has decreased slightly since 2008, 2013 has shown a slight increase (from 29.3 per cent in 2012 to 29.6 per cent in 2013). In particular, the NZCTU expresses its concern by the number of New Zealand employees working more than 50 hours a week, which is 13 per cent of the employees, according to the OECD Better Life Index. The Committee notes the Government’s reply to these observations to the effect that WorkSafe New Zealand has been set up to better align the New Zealand workplace health and safety legislative framework with best practices. It further notes the new approved code of practice, which supports the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s forestry harm reduction campaign, which aims at addressing, among others, preventing harm arising from excessive hours of work or insufficient rest periods. It also notes that the Government’s commitment to implement the recommendations of the Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy and that public consultations have begun concerning, among others, a specific requirement to consider shift work and fatigue issues at mines. While noting this information, the Committee wishes to recall that Paragraph 12 of the Reduction of Hours of Work Recommendation, 1962 (No. 116), indicates that the variable distribution of working hours over a period longer than one week should be permitted only “when special conditions in certain branches of activity or technical needs justify it”. Moreover, Paragraph 12(2) indicates that the competent national authorities should fix the maximum length of the period over which the hours of work may be averaged. In this respect, it recalls, that the New Zealand legislation does not contain provisions on an absolute limit on the daily or weekly hours of work or the methods to calculate the average working time permitted. The Committee requests the Government to transmit any further observations it may wish to make in reply to the observations of the NZCTU and would also be grateful if the Government could indicate whether it is considering taking measures to determine the method for averaging the hours of work and the period over which this method is applied.