Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106) - Guatemala (Ratification: 1959)

Article 7, paragraphs 1, 2 and 4, and Article 11(a), of the Convention. The Committee asks the Government to indicate in its next report any regulations issued under section 128 of the Labour Code or practical measures concerning special weekly rest schemes to be applied to specific categories of persons or types of establishments. Please also indicate the measures, which ensure to persons subject to such schemes, a period of weekly rest of at least 24 hours in respect of each period of seven days, and the methods adopted for the consultation of the representative employers’ and workers’ organizations.

Article 8, paragraphs 1 and 3, and Article 11(b). The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the circumstances in which temporary exemptions may be authorized. It recalls that, under Article 8, paragraph 3, compensatory rest of a total duration of at least 24 hours must be ensured to persons concerned, regardless of monetary compensation. The Committee invites the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to give effect to the Convention in this respect. Please also provide information on the methods adopted for the consultation of the representative employers’ and workers’ organizations, as required by Article 8, paragraph 2.

The Committee takes note of the observations communicated by the Trade Union of Workers of Guatemala (UNSITRAGUA) in August and September 2003, transmitted to the Government on 8 October 2003, maintaining that it is the practice in parts of the judicial system to compel judges and auxiliary staff at law courts to work up to 24 hours a day, in shifts following the normal working day. According to the Union’s comments, this procedure implies that the persons concerned are deprived of their right to paid weekly rest, embodied in section 126 of the Labour Code, similarly as in cases where workers are employed without their legal status of workers being respected as such. Extensive parts of the observation are related to methods for the calculation of wages, which in the view of UNSITRAGUA are not justified, including discrimination by retaining the payment for the weekly rest day, where workers do not work six consecutive days in the week.

The Government is invited to comment on the observations of UNSITRAGUA.