Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1998, published 87th ILC session (1999)

Hours of Work (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1930 (No. 30) - Panama (Ratification: 1959)

The Committee notes that the Government's report has not been received. It must therefore repeat its previous observation which read as follows:

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in answer to its previous comments. It notes the official establishment, on 21 January 1992, of the Tripartite Committee for Cooperation in Social and Labour Matters, whose functions include harmonizing the Labour Code with the provisions of Article 7, paragraphs 2 and 3, of the Convention. The Committee recalls in this connection that a Bill was drafted during the direct contacts held in November 1977 with a representative of the Director-General of the ILO to set a maximum of 250 hours' overtime per year in commerce and offices, since the possibility of doing three hours' overtime per day and nine per week, without any reasonable annual limit (the 468 hours per year calculated by the Government were deemed excessive) was not considered to be fully in conformity with the above Article of the Convention. The Committee again expresses the hope that the Government will shortly be in a position to fix an annual limit for temporary exceptions, in the light of the work of the Tripartite Committee and the above comments. It asks the Government to keep the Office informed of any developments in this respect.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.