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

Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106) - Bosnia and Herzegovina (Ratification: 1993)

Articles 7 and 8 of the Convention. Permanent and temporary exemptions. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s explanations that the Law of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Crafts and the Laws of the Republika Srpska on Trade and Hospitality, which provide for special working hour schedules for retail shops, tourists agencies, banking services and handicrafts, do not compromise the workers’ right to weekly rest, it being understood that when special arrangements are in place the employee will have to make use of his right on another day of the week, except Sunday. The Committee recalls, in this connection, that according to the spirit of the Convention, workers who may be subject to special weekly rest schemes, should not be deprived of the weekly rest periods to which they are entitled for unreasonably long periods. In fact, Paragraph 3(a) of the Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Recommendation, 1957 (No. 103), indicates that persons covered by special weekly rest schemes should not work for more than three weeks without receiving the rest periods to which they are entitled.

In addition, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that a preliminary draft labour law is under preparation in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and that it should include provisions prescribing the specific circumstances under which temporary exemptions to the weekly rest day may be permitted. As regards the Republika Srpska, the Committee notes that the Government is prepared to adopt similar provisions, in consultation with the social partners, in order to specify the cases in which an employer may exceptionally require an employee to work on the day of weekly rest. The Committee hopes that in the current context of legislative reform, the Government will take steps so that the new labour laws of the two entities give full effect to the requirements of the Convention regarding the two points raised above, and requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any progress made in this respect.