Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

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

Article 2 of the Convention. Daily and weekly hours of work. The Committee notes that the information sent by the Government to the effect that Bill No. 16030 has been set aside by the Human Rights Commission of the Legislative Assembly and will not be examined by Parliament. It understands, however, that the Ministry of Labour had adopted in 1998 Directive DM-0095-98 authorizing the introduction of a compressed week system (jornada acumulada or 4x3) similar to the one provided for in the abovementioned Bill and which consisted in alternating four workdays of 12 hours each and three rest days. The Committee requests the Government to provide more detailed information in this regard and to indicate in particular whether this ministerial Directive is in effect.

In addition, the Committee refers to the comments it has been formulating for a number of years concerning section 136 of the Labour Code which permits to extend to ten hours the daily limit of hours of work for those works which are not unhealthy or hazardous by nature, or to nine hours when working hours are not equally distributed during the week. The Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures without further delay in order to bring its legislation into conformity with the Convention on this point.

Moreover, the Committee notes that a bill on employment protection in times of crisis has been brought before the Legislative Assembly. It notes in particular that section 8 of this bill provides for the possibility, among a range of exceptional measures which would be authorized in times of crisis, for the employer to replace a normal system of working hours with another system permitted by the labour legislation, provided that day or mixed work is not replaced by night work. The Committee requests the Government to provide further information on the progress made with regard to the adoption of this bill and on its potential impact on the limits applicable to hours of work.

Article 6. Overtime. The Committee recalls its previous comments concerning section 139 of the Labour Code which provides that time during which the worker rectifies his/her own errors may not be considered as overtime hours even though no such exception is provided under Article 6 of the Convention. The Committee once again requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that any work performed outside of the normal hours of work are considered overtime with all the consequences this implies. In addition, the Committee recalls its previous comments concerning section 140 of the Labour Code which provides that the daily limit of hours of work, including overtime, cannot exceed 12 hours, that is to say, four hours beyond the normal daily limit. It refers, in this connection, to its 2005 General Survey on hours of work (paragraph 144) in which it noted that “even though the establishment of specific limits to the total number of additional hours is left to the competent authorities by both Conventions, this does not mean that such authorities have unlimited discretion in this regard. Taking into account the spirit of the Conventions and in the light of the preparatory work, it is appropriate to conclude that such limits must be reasonable and they must be prescribed in line with the general goal of the instrument, namely to establish the eight-hour day and the 48-hour week as a legal standard of hours of work in order to provide protection against undue fatigue and to ensure reasonable leisure and opportunities for recreation and social life”. In this respect, the possibility to require workers to perform four additional hours per day, without any other limit, weekly, monthly or annual, manifestly does not appear to be in line with a reasonable limit of additional hours. The Committee requests the Government to determine the limits of permissible additional hours in a manner that ensures that such limits are reasonable within the meaning of this Convention.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2012.]