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

Forty-Hour Week Convention, 1935 (No. 47) - Uzbekistan (Ratification: 1992)

Article 1 of the Convention. Forty-hour week. Averaging of hours of work. Overtime. The Committee notes with concern that, despite its comments for over 20 years, the Government’s report contains no new information concerning sections 123 and 124 of the Labour Code, which respectively address averaging of hours of work and overtime. As noted previously, these provisions do not appear to be in line with the spirit of the Convention, as further explained in the Reduction of Hours of Work Recommendation, 1962 (No. 116), in so far as they may lead to excessively long working hours. Thus, under section 123, working days of up to 12 hours are permitted for a period of up to one year with no apparent limiting circumstances, in contrast to Paragraph 12 of Recommendation No. 116 which stipulates that the calculation of normal hours of work as an average over a period longer than one week should only be permitted when justified by special conditions in certain branches of activity or technical needs. In addition, section 124 authorizes overtime without any limitation, in contrast to Paragraph 14 of the Recommendation which provides that the competent national authorities should determine the circumstances and limits in which exceptions to the normal hours of work may be permitted permanently, temporarily or periodically. Noting that the Government’s report contains no information on this issue, the Committee reiterates its request to the Government to supply information on the application of sections 123 and 124 of the Labour Code in its next report and explain how such working time arrangements, or a broad authorization of overtime, may be deemed to be consistent with a policy of reducing working hours while maintaining the standard of living of workers, as required under this Convention. Concerning its next report, the Committee reminds the Government that it may avail itself of the technical assistance of the Office if it so wishes in order to address the Committee’s previous comments which, to date, have not been addressed.