Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Forty-Hour Week Convention, 1935 (No. 47) - Russian Federation (Ratification: 1956)

Article 1 of the Convention. Forty-hour week. In response to its previous comment concerning section 98 of the Labour Code which allowed an employer to employ a person under two different contracts to work beyond 40 hours in a week, the Committee notes the Government’s indication that this provision has been repealed following the latest amendment of the Labour Code in 2006 (Federal Law No. 90-FZ of 30 June 2006).

In addition, the Committee notes that section 104 of the Labour Code permits the averaging of working hours over a reference period not exceeding one year. It also notes the Government’s explanations that averaging may be introduced by decision of the employer taking into account the opinion of the elected trade union organization, or without it, depending on the procedure established under the internal regulations of the enterprise. The Committee observes that such provisions call into question the object and purpose of the Convention inasmuch as recourse to long reference periods for the averaging of hours at the employer’s discretion may seriously reduce the application of the principle of the 40-hour week in practice. The Committee refers, in this connection, to Paragraph 12 of the Reduction of Hours of Work Recommendation, 1962 (No. 116), designed to facilitate the implementation of the Convention, which provides that the calculation of normal hours of work as a an average over a period longer than one week should be permitted when special conditions in certain branches of activity or technical needs justify it. The Committee accordingly requests the Government to further clarify the circumstances under which the averaging of working hours is permitted.

Moreover, the Committee notes that section 99 of the Labour Code permits an employer to request overtime work with the written consent of the worker and upon consideration of the opinion of the elected trade union of the enterprise in some unspecified cases other than emergencies and unforeseen circumstances. The Government explains in its report that the requirement for prior consultations is met if the employer informs in advance the workers’ representatives of the necessity and the volume of the overtime work in question. The Committee wishes to refer, in this respect, to Paragraph 14 of Recommendation No. 116, which envisages exceptions of three kinds (permanent, temporary, periodical) to the normal hours of work and provides that the competent authorities in each country should determine the circumstances and limits of such exceptions. The Committee further refers to paragraph 79 of its General Survey of 1984 on working time in which it noted that undue facilitation of overtime, for example, by not limiting the circumstances in which it may be permitted or by allowing relatively high maximums, could in the most egregious cases tend to defeat the Recommendation’s objective of a social standard of a 40-hour week and make irrelevant the provisions as to normal working hours. Finally, the Committee notes that, according to the ILO Decent Work Country Report for the Russian Federation, published in 2008, 52 per cent of the employees in private enterprises performed overtime work in 2004, while in 2000 about 14 per cent of all workers worked more than the standard 40 hours per week. In the light of the above statistics and the relevant provisions of Recommendation No. 116, the Committee requests the Government to supply more detailed information on the conditions under which overtime is authorized. 

 Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide together with its next report up to date information on the practical application of the Convention, including, for instance, extracts from labour inspection reports showing the number and nature of contraventions reported with regard to hours worked in excess of the 40-hour week; statistics concerning the categories and number of workers to whom the principle of a 40-hour week has been applied and the number of hours worked in excess of the 40-hour week; the categories and number of workers to whom the principle of the 40-hour week has not as yet been applied and the normal hours of work applicable to these workers; official studies or reports on working time issues and especially the question of the reduction of hours of work in relation to factors such as the effect of new technologies and employment policy objectives; trends on working time arrangements as reflected in recent collective agreements, etc.