Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 2013, Publicación: 103ª reunión CIT (2014)

Convenio sobre el descanso semanal (industria), 1921 (núm. 14) - Bahrein (Ratificación : 1981)

Articles 4 and 5 of the Convention. Total or partial exceptions – Compensatory rest. The Committee notes the adoption of the new Labour Law for the private sector No. 36 of 2012. The Committee notes, however, that section 80 of the repealed Labour Law of 1976, on which the Committee has been commenting since 2000, is now reproduced in section 57 of the new Labour Law. More concretely, section 57(b) stipulates that an employer may require a worker to work on his/her weekly day of rest if so required by the circumstances of the work, and also provided that the worker concerned is given the choice between receiving monetary compensation equivalent to 150 per cent of his/her normal wage or another day for rest. The Committee also notes that under the same provision, a worker may be employed on his/her weekly day of rest more than two consecutive times if he/she so consents in writing. The Committee wishes to recall, in this regard, that Article 4(1) of the Convention provides that when total or partial exceptions from the 24-hour weekly rest period are authorized, special regard must be given to all proper humanitarian and economic considerations, and Article 5 requires that, in such cases, compensatory periods of rest should be granted as far as possible. Recalling the importance of a 24-hour weekly rest period as an elementary guarantee to safeguard the health and well-being of all workers, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to ensure that exceptions to the weekly day of rest are authorized only under the conditions set out in the Convention and that, in case of such authorized exceptions, compensatory rest is granted, as far as possible, irrespective of any extra pay which may be offered in addition.