Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Night Work Convention, 1990 (No. 171) - Dominican Republic (Ratification: 1993)

Article 3 of the Convention. Protective measures for night workers. For the last 18 years, the Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the need to adopt measures – legislative or others – implementing the specific requirements set out in Articles 4 (free medical assessment), 6 (workers certified as unfit for night work), 7 (maternity protection), 9 (social services) and 10 (consultation of workers’ representatives) of the Convention. The Committee recalls once more that these provisions of the Convention call for concrete protective measures in view of the inherent risks of night work. For instance, Article 4 provides that night workers are entitled to request a free health assessment before they take up an assignment, at regular intervals during such assignment and whenever they experience health problems during the assignment, and also to receive advice on how to reduce or avoid health problems associated with night work. Article 6 provides that workers who are medically certified as unfit to work at night – but may not necessarily be unfit for day work – have to be either transferred to a similar job for which they are fit, or, if their transfer to an alternative position proves impracticable, granted the same benefits (for instance, unemployment, sickness or disability benefits) as those day workers who are generally unfit for work. Article 7 requires that an alternative to night work (e.g. similar or equivalent day work) be available to women workers for a period of at least sixteen weeks, of which at least eight weeks before the expected date of childbirth, or for longer periods if this is medically necessary for the health of the mother or child. Recalling that the provisions of the Convention may be implemented by laws or regulations, collective agreements, arbitration awards or court decisions, a combination of these measures or in any other manner appropriate to national conditions and practice, the Committee urges the Government to take prompt action in order to give full effect to the abovementioned requirements of the Convention.

Finally, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the conclusions of the ILO Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Working Time Arrangements, held in October 2011, according to which the provisions of existing ILO standards relating to daily and weekly hours of work, weekly rest, paid annual leave, part time and night work, remain relevant in the twenty-first century, and should be promoted in order to facilitate decent work. The Experts also emphasized the importance of working time, its regulation, and organization and management, to: (a) workers and their health and well-being, including opportunities for balancing working and non-work time; (b) the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises; and (c) effective responses to economic and labour market crises.