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

Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106) - Sri Lanka (Ratification: 1983)

Article 8, paragraph 1, of the Convention. Temporary exemptions. The Committee notes the Government’s statement that the Ministry of Labour Relations and Manpower has already identified the gaps between the provisions of the national legislation and the terms of the Convention, and that this matter has already been submitted for review and recommendations to the Steering Committee on Labour Reform, a consultative body set up under the National Labour Advisory Council. The Committee once again is obliged to recall that section 5(2) of the Shop and Office Employees (Regulation of Employment and Remuneration) Act No. 19 of 1954, which allows the Commissioner of Labour to authorize the accumulation of weekly rest days for four consecutive weeks by reason of “unforeseen circumstances”, is not consistent with the requirements of this Article of the Convention and needs to be amended. It therefore requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any progress made in the labour law reform process as regards the amendment of the Shop and Office Employees Act. It would also 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, statistics on the number of workers covered by the relevant legislation, labour inspection results showing the number of offences observed and penalties imposed in connection with weekly rest, copies of any recent collective agreements containing provisions on weekly rest schemes, etc.

Finally, the Committee takes this opportunity to recall that, based on the conclusions and proposals of the Working Party on Policy regarding the Revision of Standards, the ILO Governing Body has decided that the ratification of up to date Conventions, including the Weekly Rest (Industry) Convention, 1921 (No. 14), and the Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106), should be encouraged because they continued to respond to current needs (see GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2, paragraphs 17–18). The Committee accordingly invites the Government to contemplate ratifying Convention No. 14 and to keep the Office informed of any decisions taken or envisaged in this respect.