Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2015, published 105th ILC session (2016)

Protection of Wages Convention, 1949 (No. 95) - Syrian Arab Republic (Ratification: 1957)

Article 2(2) of the Convention. Scope of application. With reference to its previous comment regarding the protection of wages for certain categories of workers excluded from the scope of application of Labour Act No. 17/2010 of 12 April 2010, the Committee notes the adoption of Legislative Decree No. 65 of 22 September 2013 regulating the work of non-Syrian domestic workers and its implementing instruction issued by virtue of Order No. 2644, as well as Ministerial Circular No. 9492 of 6 November 2013 which includes a model sample of an employment contract of a non-local female domestic worker. It also notes that Law No. 10 of 27 May 2014, regulating the work of Syrian domestic workers, and Order No. 685 of 3 June 2014, which includes a model employment contract of a domestic worker, were promulgated.

Regarding the other categories of workers excluded from the scope of Labour Act No. 17/2010, the Government indicates that these excluded categories of workers are protected by their employment contracts, which may not in any case prescribe fewer entitlements than those prescribed by the Labour Act, as provided for under section 5(b) of the Labour Act. The Committee recalls that, while the Government indicated in its first report on the application of the Convention that it excluded domestic workers and casual workers from its scope, pursuant to the requirements of Article 2(2) of the Convention, it is still bound, in accordance with Article 2(4), to regularly indicate in its reports the categories of persons for which it waives the exclusion from the application of the Convention, and any progress made with a view to applying the Convention to those categories of workers. In addition, the other categories of workers excluded from the scope of application of the Labour Act must benefit from the protection afforded by the Convention, since they are not covered by an exception allowed under Article 2(2) of the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to keep providing information on the progress made in ensuring full protection of wages for all categories of workers excluded from the scope of Labour Act No. 17/2010. In addition, the Committee understands that, in the context of the crisis that the country is facing, many migrant workers have returned to their country of origin. It therefore requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to ensure the payment of all wages owed to these migrant workers by their employers.