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

Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1) - Libya (Ratification: 1971)

Article 6, paragraph 2. Maximum limits on additional hours of work. The Committee has been commenting for more than 25 years on section 87 of the Labour Code which permits a worker to be employed for four additional hours per day without setting any weekly, monthly or annual limit. The Committee has been pointing out that this provision goes far beyond the exceptions provided for in the Convention, i.e. permanent or temporary exceptions to the general standard of eight hours in the day and 48 hours in the week which are permissible only in the following cases: (a) for preparatory or complementary work, which must be carried on outside the limits laid down for the general working of an establishment, or for certain categories of workers whose work is essentially intermittent; and (b) so that undertakings may deal with exceptional cases of pressure of work.

The Committee has also been recalling that the Convention requires payment of all overtime at not less than one and one-quarter times the regular rate. In its last report, the Government maintains that workers who agree to work hours in excess of the prescribed amount are not entitled to overtime pay in order not to be tempted by financial gain and adds that the four additional hours of daily work were introduced in the early 1970s because of the first social and economic development plan of the 1969 Fateh Revolution which had a strong focus on infrastructure and housing construction. Moreover, contrary to reassurances given in earlier reports that legislative amendments were under preparation with a view to bringing the Labour Code into full conformity with the Convention, the Government in its last two reports no longer makes any reference to the process of revision of the general labour legislation.

In this regard, the Committee wishes to refer to paragraph 144 of its 2005 General Survey on hours of work in which it noted that even though the establishment of specific limits to the total number of additional hours is left to the competent authorities, this does not mean that such authorities have unlimited discretion in this regard. Such limits must be reasonable and they must be prescribed in line with the general goal of Conventions Nos 1 and 30, which is to establish the eight-hour day and 48-hour week as a legal standard of hours of work in order to provide protection against undue fatigue and to ensure reasonable leisure and opportunities for recreation and social life. The Committee asks the Government to take without further delay all necessary measures in order to amend section 87 of the Labour Code so as to (i) ensure that overtime is only allowed in the cases provided for in the Convention, (ii) establish, within reasonable limits, the maximum number of hours of overtime work which may be allowed in the year, and (iii) ensure that overtime work performed in either the public or the private sector in the case of temporary exceptions, is paid at least at the higher rate prescribed by Article 6(2) of the Convention.