Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1) - Bulgaria (Ratification: 1922)

Articles 2, 4, 5 and 6 of the Convention. Daily and weekly limits of hours of work – Permanent and temporary exceptions. The Committee notes the most recent amendments to the Labour Code, in 2014, which address matters such as maternity protection and apprenticeship rights but fail to take into account any of the Committee’s previous comments, which it has been making for nearly 20 years, concerning maximum working hours and permanent and temporary exceptions to those hours. More concretely, the Committee has been requesting the Government to take the necessary measures to bring the relevant provisions of the Labour Code into line with the requirements of the Convention concerning: (1) its provisions permitting “opting out” of the general standard of eight hours a day and 48 hours a week under conditions that extend far beyond those prescribed by Article 2 of the Convention; (2) section 136a(2), which allows employers to extend working hours in some workdays and compensate in other workdays up to a ten-hour workday, in contrast to Article 2(b); (3) section 142(4) which provides that, in relation to the averaging of hours of work, the maximum duration of a work shift may be up to 12 hours and the maximum duration of the working week may be up to 56 hours, in contrast to the Convention’s limits for shift work in general (Article 2(c)), shift work in continuous processes (Article 4), and the averaging of hours of work (Article 5); and (4) the absence of provisions which specify the categories of workers which, due to the special nature of their work, may be excluded permanently from the limits of Article 2 of the Convention, in line with Article 6.

The Committee notes, in this respect, that the Government merely indicates that, for the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations on aligning the provisions of the Labour Code with the Convention, discussions would need to be taken in advance with the social partners in the context of tripartite cooperation and dialogue. It also notes the comments formulated by the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions of Bulgaria regarding the application of section 147 of the Labour Code, according to which the provision of overtime for certain categories of persons is not applied based on the calculation of working time. Recalling that it has been identifying gaps in implementing legislation for several years, the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures in the very near future to bring its legislation in line with the requirements of the Convention. It reminds the Government that, should it so wish, it may seek technical assistance from the ILO in making the necessary legislative amendments. Moreover, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to Part V, as well as to paragraphs 227 and 228 of its General Survey of 2005 on hours of work, which provides further explanations and examples of good practice with respect to the procedures for the authorization of extension of working hours.