Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 82nd ILC session (1995)

Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1) - Costa Rica (Ratification: 1982)

The Committee takes note of the information supplied by the "Confederación de Trabajadores Rerum Novarum" in April 1994 where it referred to the absence of regulations on the hours of work to be applied specially, inter alia, to transport by highway, cargo in general, and passengers. The Government has not submitted its comments on the said information.

In its previous direct requests, the Committee referred to the possible differences between certain provisions of the Labour Code and the Convention. In previous reports, the Government manifested that under section 136 of the Labour Code, the workers and employers can agree to fix the hours of work up to ten hours a day as long as the limit of 48 hours of work per week is respected, which is contrary to Article 2 of the Convention, which provides that only in certain circumstances can hours of work be exceeded by one hour per day. The Government also assures that it is applying Article 5 of the Convention, but this Article refers only to "in exceptional cases where it is recognized that the provisions of Article 2 cannot be applied ...". This does not seem to be the case under section 136 of the Labour Code. Furthermore, in cases referred to in Article 5 of the Convention, but only in such cases, the Convention provides that agreements between workers' and employers' organizations, if they are given the force of regulations by the Government, could provide for the daily limit of work over a longer period of time. However, regarding the information transmitted by the "Confederación de Trabajadores Rerum Novarum", it seems that the agreements of workers and employers or the pertinent regulations do not exist.

The Committee asks the Government to give all necessary information on that matter.

On the other hand, Article 6 of the Convention establishes the obligation of determining by regulations the possible exceptions, permanent or temporary, in certain cases and under certain conditions. The Committee recalls that these exceptions have to be maintained within reasonable limits. The Committee asks the Government to provide all available information on the application of these provisions.

More generally, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate the measures taken to ensure full conformity between the legislation and the provisions of the Convention.

[The Government is asked to report in detail by 1 September 1995, at the latest]