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

Convention (n° 1) sur la durée du travail (industrie), 1919 - Slovaquie (Ratification: 1993)

Articles 5 and 6 of the Convention. Uneven distribution of hours of work over a period longer than a week – Temporary exceptions – Overtime. Further to its previous comment, the Committee notes the most recent amendments to the Labour Code, as approved by Act No. 361/2012 Coll., which took effect in January 2013. In this connection, the Committee notes that the amended section 97(10) no longer provides for a maximum limit of 550 hours per year of authorized overtime work for managers, which had been the subject of critical comments previously submitted by the Confederation of Trade Unions of the Slovak Republic (KOZ SR).

The Committee notes, however, that section 97(10) of the Labour Code retains the overall maximum of 400 hours per year of authorized overtime. The Committee is therefore bound to express once again its concern that, in its current reading, there is nothing in the Labour Code to prevent the possibility of employees being asked to perform excessive overtime hours in certain periods of the year. The Committee accordingly requests the Government to reconsider the maximum number of authorized overtime, and the legal limitations regulating the use of overtime work, to ensure that they meet the general goal of the Convention which is to establish the eight-hour day and 48-hour week as a legal standard of hours of work.

In addition, the Committee notes that, under section 121(3) of the Labour Code, an employee may choose to receive time off in compensation of overtime hours worked and, in such a case, the employee will not be entitled to overtime pay. The Committee recalls, in this respect, that the Convention requires overtime to be financially compensated in all cases, and that therefore extra time off may not replace overtime pay. The Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures in order to bring section 121 of the Labour Code in line with the requirements of the Convention in this respect.

Moreover, the Committee notes that section 97(5) of the Labour Code remains unchanged despite the Committee’s repeated requests that the Government amend this provision to bring it into conformity with the Convention. The Committee recalls that, first, by authorizing employers to impose overtime work for reasons of “public interest”, this provision leaves room for much broader exceptions than the exceptional cases of pressure of work provided for in Article 6(1)(b) of the Convention. Secondly, by stipulating that the rest period between two periods of duty may not be reduced to less than eight hours, this provision makes it technically possible to have workdays of up to 16 hours. The Committee wishes to emphasize that working extremely long hours is contrary to the letter and the spirit of this Convention and represents a serious risk for the workers’ health. The Committee accordingly requests the Government to amend section 97(5) of the Labour Code at the next suitable occasion to bring it in line with the requirements of the Convention both as regards the conditions under which overtime may be authorized, and also with respect to the maximum number of overtime hours authorized per day.