Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106) - Jordan (Ratification: 1979)

Article 6 of the Convention. Weekly rest. Public employees. The Committee notes that, while section 96 of the Civil Service Statute No. 30 of 2007 sets the legal working hours to seven hours a day and five days a week, it also allows the Council of Ministers to exclude any department from this provision, for the reason of the nature of its work, and authorizes every department to organize the working hours to adapt them to the requirement of the services it provides to citizens. As this provision may affect the weekly rest entitlement of public employees, the Committee would appreciate if the Government would provide additional explanations as to how it is ensured in both law and practice that public employees enjoy a weekly rest of at least 24 consecutive hours in respect of each period of seven days. The Committee also requests the Government to transmit a copy of any decision the Council of Ministers may have issued so far, by virtue of section 96 of the Civil Service Statute excluding a certain category of public employees from the normal weekly rest scheme.

Article 8, paragraph 3. Compensatory rest. The Committee notes that section 29(a) of the Civil Service Statute provides for overtime pay at 130 per cent of the regular rate especially in cases of the accomplishment of urgent or seasonal work or when the nature of services so requires. It also notes that, under section 29(f), a public employee may be granted a supplementary day of annual leave for every five hours of overtime accomplished up to a maximum of ten days a year in lieu of the cash compensation on his or her request, or in case of lack of financial allocations. The Committee recalls in this respect that the Convention requires a compensatory rest of a total duration of at least 24 hours to be granted in all cases when work is performed on the weekly rest day, irrespective of any monetary compensation. Moreover, granting extra days of annual leave would not be consonant with the spirit of the Convention which seeks to allow workers to benefit from effective rest in a reasonably short period of time in order to compensate the weekly rest of which the worker was deprived. The Committee therefore requests the Government to consider possible amendments to the Civil Service Statute in order to bring it into line with the requirements of this Article of the Convention.

Article 11. List of exemptions. The Government is requested to provide a list of all authorized exemptions (permanent or temporary) to the normal weekly rest scheme, as required by this Article of the Convention.

Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee notes that the Government has not communicated for many years concrete information concerning the practical application of the Convention. It would therefore appreciate receiving up to date information in this regard, including, in particular, statistics on the approximate number of workers covered by the relevant legislation, labour inspection results showing the number of contraventions observed concerning weekly rest and sanctions imposed, copies of any collective agreements containing provisions on special weekly rest schemes, etc.

Finally, the Committee takes this opportunity to recall that, based on the conclusions and proposals of the Working Party on Policy regarding the Revision of Standards, the ILO Governing Body has decided that the ratification of up to date Conventions, including the Weekly Rest (Industry) Convention, 1921 (No. 14), and the Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106), should be encouraged because these instruments continue to respond to current needs (see GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2, paragraphs 17–18). Noting that the national legislation giving effect to this Convention applies to all sectors and to all branches of economic activity without distinction, the Committee invites the Government to contemplate ratifying Convention No. 14 and to keep the Office informed of any decision taken or envisaged in this respect.