Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 2013, publiée 103ème session CIT (2014)

Convention (n° 30) sur la durée du travail (commerce et bureaux), 1930 - Guatemala (Ratification: 1961)

Articles 2 and 6 of the Convention. Work in excess of normal hours of work – Overtime hours. The Committee notes the Government’s reply to the comments of the Indigenous and Rural Workers’ Trade Union Movement of Guatemala (MSICG) dated 10 September 2012, regarding allegedly excessive working hours imposed on the staff of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Children and Young People, of the Guatemalan Social Security Institute and of the Institute of Public Criminal Defence. The Government indicates that while employees of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Children and Young People carry out 24-hour shifts, they are not subject to forced labour, as their health and life are not affected and they have the right to compensatory rest in accordance with the law regulating the warning system Alba-Kenneth. The Government adds that, according to the Labour Division of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the organization of work in shifts is necessary to ensure that children are protected and shifts are organized with fairness in order to comply with the relevant legislation. As regards the employees of the Guatemalan Social Security Institute and the Institute of Public Criminal Defence, the Government refers to the respective internal regulations and explains that work carried out in excess of the normal hours of work, when duly authorized, is remunerated as overtime work. Noting that the MSICG’s comments appear to refer especially to cases in which employees are de facto obliged to perform long overtime hours without always receiving extra pay, the Committee requests the Government to provide additional information on the manner in which working time legislation is effectively enforced in practice. The Committee also requests the Government to refer to the comments made under the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1), which addresses similar problems of excessively long hours of work and unpaid overtime in the industrial sector.