Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 2008, Publicación: 98ª reunión CIT (2009)

Convenio (revisado) sobre el trabajo nocturno (mujeres), 1948 (núm. 89) - Bahrein (Ratificación : 1981)

Article 3 of the Convention. General prohibition of night work for women. The Committee notes the Government’s reference to Order No. 44 of 2007, which authorizes women’s employment during the night in banks and foreign exchange offices, thus supplementing Order No. 18/1976 respecting the circumstances, occupations and occasions in which women may be required to work at night between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. The Government adds that it will endeavour to study the possibility of ratifying the 1990 Protocol in consultation with representative employers’ and workers’ organizations.

In this connection, the Committee wishes to draw, once more, the Government’s attention to the fact that member States are increasingly required to initiate a review process of their protective legislation aiming at the gradual elimination of any provisions which would be contrary to the principle of equal treatment between men and women, except those connected with maternity protection, and with due account being taken of national circumstances. This trend reflects also the growing expectation that the same standards of protection should apply to men and women alike, in accordance with the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) and also the widely ratified UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (to which, parenthetically, Bahrain acceded in 2002).

The Committee is fully cognizant, however, that as a long-term goal, the full application of the principle of gender equality and non-discrimination in employment will only be attained progressively through appropriate legal reforms and varying periods of adaptation, depending on the stage of economic and social development or the influence of cultural traditions in a given society. It is in this sense that the Committee concluded in paragraph 164 of its General Survey of 2001 on night work of women in industry, that the gender-specific prohibition against employment during the night should progressively become irrelevant and that the prohibition should be overtaken by laws and practices that offer adequate protection to all workers. This is, though, subject to the understanding that national, regional and even sectoral conditions and progress in achieving the elimination of discrimination vary considerably, and therefore some women workers may still need protection along with the pursuit of genuine conditions of equality and non-discrimination.

In the light of these observations, the Committee hopes that the Government will give favourable consideration to the possibility of modernizing its legislation by ratifying either the 1990 Protocol to Convention No. 89, which opens up the possibility for women to work at night under certain well-specified conditions, or the Night Work Convention, 1990 (No. 171), which is not devised as a gender‑specific instrument but focuses on the protection of all night workers in all branches and occupations. The Committee recalls that the Government may wish to seek the assistance of the Office with a view to better understanding the possibilities and implications of each of these two instruments and revising existing legislation accordingly. It requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any decision taken or envisaged in this regard.