Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

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

The Committee notes the observations made by the Confederation of Workers Rerum Novarum (CTRN), as well as the Government’s response to the observations.

Article 2 of the Convention. Maximum daily limit on hours of work. Section 143 of the Labour Code excludes certain categories of workers from the provisions regulating hours of work, and in particular, "persons performing work which, by its very nature, is not subject to the regulations on hours of work". The Committee requests the Government to clarify which categories of workers are excluded.

Article 6. Additional hours of work. Under section 139 of the Labour Code, the hours during which a worker corrects errors which are exclusively attributable to him are not considered additional hours of work. This exception however is not provided for in the Convention, which gives an exhaustive enumeration of the circumstances under which permanent and temporary exceptions are allowed. Therefore, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures envisaged to amend section 139 of the Labour Code in order to ensure conformity with the Convention.

Bill to amend the Labour Code. The CTRN claims in its observation that the Government had transmitted to the Legislative Assembly a Bill which would deregulate the hours of work and, therefore, is contrary to the provisions of the Convention, instead of bringing the legislation into conformity with the Convention, as requested by the Committee. The workers’ representatives in the High-Level Labour Council are opposed to this bill. Theproposed section 136 would permit "cumulative hours of work", allowing the worker to work a reduced number of days per week (five instead of six), and the daily hours of work to be increased to up to ten hours. According to the CTRN, this measure would mean that overtime hours would only be calculated after ten hours and not after eight hours of work per day. Section 140bis would permit "extended normal daily hours of work" up to 12 hours. The CTRN alleges that the introduction of such a measure would lead to the dismissal of thousands of workers if they did not accept a normal work day of 12 hours. Furthermore, section 140ter would allow enterprises, the possibility to calculate hours of work on an annual basis, for work not considered unhealthy or dangerous. The hours of work would be 2,400 per year, that is an average of 48 hours per week over a period of 50 weeks. Daily working time would be between six and ten hours. The CTRN emphasizes that the employer would be free, unilaterally, to determine the work schedule and the only constraint would be the need to communicate the schedule to the workers 15 days in advance. This would lead to a loss of freedom and opportunities for those who would like to take on a second job and would no longer have the possibility to take up studies.

In its response, the Government emphasizes that the bill aims to establish new flexible forms of organizing hours of work in certain well-defined exceptional cases and in full respect of the Constitution, in order to respond to the needs of enterprises which must operate 24 hours a day. The competitiveness of the country would be increased, which would lead to the creation of new employment opportunities. The Labour Code incorporates section 58 of the Constitution, which sets the daily hours of work performed at eight hours and the normal hours of work shall not exceed 48 hours per week. The Constitution however permits exceptions to these rules in certain well-defined exceptional cases. Thus, an act may modify the organization of working time, as is the case with the bill in question. However, in view of the opposition demonstrated against this bill by many parts of society, one ought to wait before action is taken. The bill is no longer on the agenda of the plenary of the Legislative Assembly but on the agenda of the Committee of Social Affairs. The Government indicates that it respects the opinions of CTRN and requests the International Labour Office to provide its views on this subject so that the Government can analyse and take them into consideration.

The Committee notes the Government’s request to the International Labour Office for comments on the bill. It also notes that the Government has tentatively decided to remove the bill from the agenda of the plenary of the Legislative Assembly and to resubmit it to the Committee on Social Affairs.

In the version communicated by the CTRN, the bill contains certain provisions which would, if adopted, be contrary to the Convention (in particular, the annualization of working time and the extension of the hours of work to up to 12 hours per day). As the Government has requested the comments of the Office on this bill, it is invited to transmit an updated version of this text and to keep the Committee informed of all developments related to the adoption of the bill.