Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2020, published 109th ILC session (2021)

Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1) - Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (Ratification: 1944)

The Committee notes the observations of the Independent Trade Union Alliance Confederation of Workers (CTASI), received on 30 September 2020, expressing concern over the new working time arrangements adopted by the Government in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular the arrangement whereby workers alternate between seven days at work followed by seven days at home. The Committee requests the Government to provide its comments in this regard.

Not having received other supplementary information further to the decision adopted by the Governing Body at its 338th Session (June 2020), the Committee reiterates its comments adopted in 2019 and reproduced below.

Article 2(b) of the Convention. Regular averaging of hours of work. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that section 175(4) of the Basic Labour Act (LOTTT) provides that collective agreements may establish regular averaging schemes, as long as the following conditions are respected: (i) daily limit of 11 hours; (ii) an average of 40 hours per week calculated over eight weeks; and (iii) the workers concerned must enjoy two consecutive days of rest every week. In this regard, the Committee recalls that the Convention: (i) allows for variations in the duration of daily hours as long as the 48-hour weekly limit is respected (the reference period is one week); (ii) sets a daily limit of nine hours for this variation; and (iii) requires this variation to be approved by the competent authority or by agreement between workers’ and employers’ organizations (procedural safeguards). The Committee observes that these procedural safeguards are respected in section 175(4) which provides that the averaging scheme may be established by collective agreements. It also observes that the scheme foreseen in section 175(4) is based on an average of 40 hours per week calculated over eight weeks (reference period). While acknowledging that the weekly average of 40 hours is more favourable than that foreseen in the Convention (48 hours), the Committee notes that the averaging scheme in question is not fully in conformity with the Convention, given that it does not respect the daily limit of nine hours nor the reference period (one week). The Committee is therefore bound to request the Government to review the provisions of section 175(4) of the LOTTT, in light of the obligations under Article 2(b) of the Convention, in consultation with the social partners. It also requests the Government to provide information on the application of section 175(4) in practice, including the number of collective agreements adopted under this provision and the maximum daily limit that they set.

[The Government is asked to reply in full to the present comments in 2021.]