Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Weekly Rest (Industry) Convention, 1921 (No. 14) - Pakistan (Ratification: 1923)

Articles 4 and 6 of the Convention. Total and partial exceptions. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the new communication of the Pakistan Workers Federation (PWF), dated 30 July 2010, which essentially reproduces earlier observations regarding the need to amend section 43(2) of the Factories Act, 1934, section 25 of the Mines Act, 1923, and section 71D(2) of the Railways Act, 1890, that according to the Federation provide for much broader exemptions from the rules governing weekly rest than those permitted under the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to communicate any comments it may wish to make in reply to the latest observations of the PWF. In addition, the Committee requests the Government to provide a detailed list of all the exemptions in force, as prescribed by Article 6 of the Convention, and also to indicate the manner in which it takes into account all appropriate economic and humanitarian considerations with a view to authorizing such exemptions, in accordance with Article 4 of the Convention.

Finally, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the conclusions of the ILO Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Working Time Arrangements, held in October 2011, according to which the provisions of existing ILO standards relating to daily and weekly hours of work, weekly rest, paid annual leave, part-time and night work, remain relevant in the twenty-first century, and should be promoted in order to facilitate decent work. The Experts also emphasized the importance of working time, its regulation, and organization and management, to: (a) workers and their health and well-being, including opportunities for balancing working and non-work time; (b) the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises; and (c) effective responses to economic and labour market crises.