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

Weekly Rest (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1957 (No. 106) - Malta (Ratification: 1988)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

Repetition

Articles 7(2) and 8(3) of the Convention. Permanent and temporary exemptions. Compensatory rest. The Committee notes that, under section 14 of the Organization of Working Time Regulations (L.N. 247/2003, as amended by L.N. 427/2007), where the application of the normal weekly rest scheme is excluded and as a result a worker is required to work during a period which would otherwise be a period of rest, the employer is under the obligation to grant such compensatory rest period as can be reasonably considered as equivalent to the normal 24-hour rest period and, in exceptional cases in which it may not be possible for objective reasons to grant such a period of rest, the employer must afford appropriate protection to safeguard the worker’s health and safety excluding monetary compensation or other material benefits. The Committee considers that this provision in its qualified wording is not fully consistent with the Convention which requires in unequivocal terms that compensatory rest of a total duration at least equivalent to 24 hours be granted in all cases of authorized exemptions, whether permanent or temporary. The Committee requests the Government to explain how section 14 of the Organization of Working Time Regulations, and in particular references such as “reasonably equivalent”, “objective reasons” and “appropriate protection”, can be deemed to give effect to the clear requirement of Articles 7(2) and 8(3) of the Convention.