Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 1995, Publicación: 83ª reunión CIT (1996)

Convenio sobre las horas de trabajo (industria), 1919 (núm. 1) - Bulgaria (Ratificación : 1922)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report and the various amendments to the Labour Code relating to the provisions of the Convention.

Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee notes sections 110 and 111 of the Labour Code under which a worker may conclude a supplementary employment contract with his employer and/or another employer (subject to the agreement of his main employer). This is a contract for the performance of work outside the normal working hours of the main contract.

The Committee requests the Government to indicate how respect for the legal limit of hours of work, fixed in accordance with the Convention by section 136 of the Labour Code, is guaranteed in cases of internal and external accumulation of jobs.

Please indicate in addition whether the categories covered by section 139(4) of the Code are comparable to those excluded from the scope of the Convention by Article 2(a).

Articles 4 and 5. The Committee notes that under section 142(2) of the Labour Code, the employer may establish a summarized calculation of working hours for continuous production processes and for work where conditions do not allow a daily calculation and that, under paragraph 4 of the same section, the maximum duration of a work shift under a summarized calculation of working hours may be up to 12 hours.

The Government is requested to indicate in its next report whether this provision applies to the shift work covered by Article 2(c) of the Convention or that covered by Article 4 of the Convention (see also under Article 7 below).

Please indicate also whether the average weekly hours of shift work for continuous production processes and other types of work covered by Article 5 of the Convention remains equal to the normal weekly hours of work as fixed in section 136 of the Labour Code.

The Committee furthermore asks the Government to indicate whether the employer decides unilaterally to establish a summarized calculation of working hours for the types of work covered by Article 5 of the Convention or whether his decision is made after consultation and agreement with workers' organizations.

Article 6, paragraph 1(b). The Committee notes that temporary exceptions from the normal hours of work are determined by the law (section 144 of the Labour Code) and not by public authority regulations after consultation with the organizations of employers and workers concerned as laid down in this Article of the Convention.

It also notes that only temporary exceptions for the performance of intensive seasonal work are subject to the prior permission of the labour inspectorate (section 145 of the Code).

The Committee wishes to emphasize again the value of measures designed to restrict the circumstances in which temporary exception may be authorized and to call the Government's attention to the need for appropriate regulation by industry and by profession as prescribed in the Convention, in particular, to ensure that the existence of the circumstances in question is checked and that any abuses noted are sanctioned (in this regard, see Hours of work, General Survey of the Committee of Experts, 1967, paragraph 188).

The Committee trusts that the Government will not fail to take the measures needed to give effect to this provision of the Convention in regard to the determination of temporary exceptions, as it has done by means of section 139(4) and (5) of the Labour Code for the permanent exceptions covered by Article 6(1)(a) and requests it to keep the ILO informed of any progress made in this direction.

Article 8. Please annex to the report examples of the notices and records mentioned in this Article.

Point III of the report form. Article 7(1)(a). The Committee notes that no official list of processes classed as being necessarily continuous in character in the meaning of Article 4 has been drawn up. It trusts that such a list will be sent to the ILO shortly. Furthermore, the Government is requested to supply full information on the practice of any agreements such as those provided in Article 5 on the regulations laid down under Article 6 and their application, to describe the methods followed for consultation of employers' and workers' organizations on this point and to send any text of this type adopted on the subject.

Point VII. Please indicate in each of the subsequent reports on application of the Convention whether the employers' and workers' organizations to which they have been sent have made observations and provide the ILO with a summary of any such observations.