Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

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

Articles 2 and 5 of the Convention. Averaging of hours of work. The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report does not reply to its previous observation concerning section 206 of the Basic Labour Act. It observes that this provision allows employers and workers to decide by common agreement to modify the limits set by the Act for hours of work, on condition that compensatory measures are envisaged and that weekly hours of work do not exceed 44 hours on average over a period of eight weeks. The Committee recalls in this respect that the basic rule established by the Convention is compliance with a double limit on hours of work, namely eight hours in the day and 48 hours in the week and that, as it emphasized in its 2005 General Survey on hours of work (paragraph 57), “these limitations of normal working hours laid down in the Conventions should be viewed as strict maximum limits which are not liable to variation or waiver at the free will of the parties”. Article 2(b) of the Convention allows, within certain limits, the unequal distribution of hours of work over a week, but not the averaging of hours of work over a period of eight weeks. In any event, such an arrangement can only be envisaged by law, custom or agreement between representative employers’ and workers’ organizations. Furthermore, Article 5 of the Convention, which authorizes the distribution of hours of work over a period longer than a week, applies only in exceptional cases where the limits established by the Convention in relation to daily and weekly hours of work are recognized as being inapplicable. This provision also requires the conclusion of an agreement on this subject between employers’ and workers’ organizations and its approval by the competent national authorities. The Committee is therefore obliged to emphasize once again that section 206 of the Basic Labour Act, which allows the averaging of hours of work over a period of eight weeks without restriction and on the sole condition of the conclusion of an agreement for this purpose between the employer and the worker concerned, is not in conformity with the Convention. In view of the importance of limiting hours of work to protect the health of workers and the need to protect the latter against any abuses, the Committee trusts that the Government will take the necessary measures without further delay to amend section 206 of the Basic Labour Act so as to bring it into conformity with the provisions of the Convention. In this respect, the Committee notes that the Government no longer refers in its last report to the draft reform of the Basic Labour Act. It requests the Government to provide information on the progress made in the process of adopting this draft text.

The Committee is also addressing a request directly to the Government on other points.