Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919 (No. 1) - Pakistan (Ratification: 1921)

Article 6 of the Convention. Permanent and temporary exceptions. The Committee notes the Government’s reply to the observations of the Pakistan Workers’ Federation (PWF) according to which it would be necessary to amend section 43(2) of the Factories Act, 1934, and section 25(5) of the Mines Act, 1923, to provide for tripartite consultations as a precondition to granting permanent or temporary exemptions from working hour limits. The PWF also called for the amendment of section 71C(2) of the Railways Act, 1890, which allows railway servants whose employment is essentially intermittent to work up to 84 hours in any week. In its response, the Government indicates that under the 18th Constitutional amendment, responsibility for labour legislation was transferred to the provinces and accordingly the provinces are in the process of developing new labour laws or rationalizing and consolidating existing ones. The Government adds that the observations of the PWF have been forwarded to the provincial governments with the request to duly consider them during the exercise. While noting the Government’s explanations, and while recalling the Government’s obligation to ensure the application of the Convention as well as the compliance at the provincial level, the Committee requests the Government to provide, together with its next report, detailed information on the process and content of any tripartite consultations undertaken at the provincial level on issues related to working time arrangements, and in particular the scope of any authorized derogations from normal hours of work. The Committee also requests the Government to transmit copies of any new laws or regulations dealing with hours of work in industrial undertakings once they have been adopted.