"In accordance with the Joint
Declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of China and the
Government of the Republic of Portugal on the Question of Macao (hereinafter
referred to as the Joint Declaration), the Government of the People's Republic
of China will resume the exercise of sovereignty over Macao with effect from 20
December 1999. Macao will, from that date, become a Special Administrative
Region of the People's Republic of China and will enjoy a high degree of autonomy,
except in foreign and defence affairs which are the responsibilities of the
Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China.
It is provided both in section VIII of
Elaboration by the Government of the People's Republic of China of its Basic
Policies Regarding Macao, which is Annex I to the Joint Declaration, and
Article 138 of the Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the
People's Republic of China, which was adopted on 31 March 1993 by the National
People's Congress of the People's Republic of China, that international
agreements to which the People's Republic of China is not yet a party but which
are implemented in Macao may continue to be implemented in the Macao Special
Administrative Region.
In accordance with the above provisions, I
am instructed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of
China to inform Your Excellency of the following:
Convention Limiting the Hours of Work in
Industrial Undertakings to Eight in the Day and Forty-eight in the Week (No.
1), adopted at Washington on 29 October 1919 (hereinafter referred to as the
"Convention"), which applies to Macao at present, will continue to
apply to the Macao Special Administrative Region with effect from 20 December
1999.
Within the above ambit, the Government of
the People's Republic of China will assume the responsibility for the
international rights and obligations that place on a Party to the Convention."
Convention
Limiting the Hours of Work in Industrial Undertakings to Eight in the Day and
Forty-eight in the Week
(ILO No. 1)
(Adopted at Washington on 28 November 1919)
The General
Conference of the International Labour Organisation,
Having been
convened at Washington by the Government of the United States of America on the
29th day of October 1919, and
Having decided upon
the adoption of certain proposals with regard to the "application of the
principle of the 8-hours day or of the 48-hours week", which is the first
item in the agenda for the Washington meeting of the Conference, and
Having determined
that these proposals shall take the form of an international Convention,
adopts the
following Convention, which may be cited as the Hours of Work (Industry)
Convention, 1919, for ratification by the Members of the International Labour
Organisation, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of the
International Labour Organisation:
Article 1
1. For the purpose
of this Convention, the term industrial undertaking includes
particularly--
(a) mines,
quarries, and other works for the extraction of minerals from the earth;
(b) industries in
which articles are manufactured, altered, cleaned, repaired, ornamented,
finished, adapted for sale, broken up or demolished, or in which materials are
transformed; including shipbuilding and the generation, transformation, and
transmission of electricity or motive power of any kind;
(c) construction,
reconstruction, maintenance, repair, alteration, or demolition of any building,
railway, tramway, harbour, dock, pier, canal, inland waterway, road, tunnel,
bridge, viaduct, sewer, drain, well, telegraphic or telephonic installation,
electrical undertaking, gas work, waterwork or other work of construction, as
well as the preparation for or laying the foundations of any such work or
structure;
(d) transport of
passengers or goods by road, rail, sea or inland waterway, including the
handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves or warehouses, but excluding
transport by hand.
2. The provisions
relative to transport by sea and on inland waterways shall be determined by a
special conference dealing with employment at sea and on inland waterways.
3. The competent
authority in each country shall define the line of division which separates
industry from commerce and agriculture.
Article 2
The working hours
of persons employed in any public or private industrial undertaking or in any
branch thereof, other than an undertaking in which only members of the same
family are employed, shall not exceed eight in the day and forty-eight in the
week, with the exceptions hereinafter provided for:
(a) the provisions
of this Convention shall not apply to persons holding positions of supervision
or management, nor to persons employed in a confidential capacity;
(b) where by law,
custom, or agreement between employers' and workers' organisations, or, where
no such organisations exist, between employers' and workers' representatives,
the hours of work on one or more days of the week are less than eight, the
limit of eight hours may be exceeded on the remaining days of the week by the
sanction of the competent public authority, or by agreement between such
organisations or representatives; provided, however, that in no case under the
provisions of this paragraph shall the daily limit of eight hours be exceeded
by more than one hour;
(c) where persons
are employed in shifts it shall be permissible to employ persons in excess of
eight hours in any one day and forty-eight hours in any one week, if the
average number of hours over a period of three weeks or less does not exceed
eight per day and forty-eight per week.
Article 3
The limit of hours
of work prescribed in Article 2 may be exceeded in case of accident, actual or
threatened, or in case of urgent work to be done to machinery or plant, or in
case of "force majeure", but only so far as may be necessary to avoid
serious interference with the ordinary working of the undertaking.
Article 4
The limit of hours
of work prescribed in Article 2 may also be exceeded in those processes which
are required by reason of the nature of the process to be carried on
continuously by a succession of shifts, subject to the condition that the
working hours shall not exceed fifty-six in the week on the average. Such
regulation of the hours of work shall in no case affect any rest days which may
be secured by the national law to the workers in such processes in compensation
for the weekly rest day.
Article 5
1. In exceptional
cases where it is recognised that the provisions of Article 2 cannot be
applied, but only in such cases, agreements between workers' and employers'
organisations concerning the daily limit of work over a longer period of time
may be given the force of regulations, if the Government, to which these
agreements shall be submitted, so decides.
2. The average
number of hours worked per week, over the number of weeks covered by any such
agreement, shall not exceed forty-eight.
Article 6
1. Regulations made
by public authority shall determine for industrial undertakings--
(a) the permanent
exceptions that may be allowed in preparatory or complementary work which must
necessarily be carried on outside the limits laid down for the general working
of an establishment, or for certain classes of workers whose work is
essentially intermittent;
(b) the temporary
exceptions that may be allowed, so that establishments may deal with
exceptional cases of pressure of work.
2. These
regulations shall be made only after consultation with the organisations of
employers and workers concerned, if any such organisations exist. These regulations
shall fix the maximum of additional hours in each instance, and the rate of pay
for overtime shall not be less than one and one-quarter times the regular rate.
Article 7
1. Each Government
shall communicate to the International Labour Office--
(a) a list of the
processes which are classed as being necessarily continuous in character under
Article 4;
(b) full
information as to working of the agreements mentioned in Article 5; and
(c) full
information concerning the regulations made under Article 6 and their
application.
2. The
International Labour Office shall make an annual report thereon to the General
Conference of the International Labour Organisation.
Article 8
1. In order to
facilitate the enforcement of the provisions of this Convention, every employer
shall be required--
(a) to notify by
means of the posting of notices in conspicuous places in the works or other
suitable place, or by such other method as may be approved by the Government,
the hours at which work begins and ends, and where work is carried on by
shifts, the hours at which each shift begins and ends; these hours shall be so
fixed that the duration of the work shall not exceed the limits prescribed by
this Convention, and when so notified they shall not be changed except with
such notice and in such manner as may be approved by the Government;
(b) to notify in
the same way such rest intervals accorded during the period of work as are not
reckoned as part of the working hours;
(c) to keep a
record in the form prescribed by law or regulation in each country of all
additional hours worked in pursuance of Articles 3 and 6 of this Convention.
2. It shall be made
an offence against the law to employ any person outside the hours fixed in
accordance with paragraph (a), or during the intervals fixed in accordance with
paragraph (b).
Article 9
In the application
of this Convention to Japan the following modifications and conditions shall
obtain:
(a) the term
"industrial undertaking" includes particularly--
the undertakings
enumerated in paragraph (a) of Article 1;
the undertakings
enumerated in paragraph (b) of Article 1, provided there are at least ten
workers employed;
the undertakings
enumerated in paragraph (c) of Article 1, in so far as these undertakings shall
be defined as "factories" by the competent authority;
the undertakings
enumerated in paragraph (d) of Article 1, except transport of passengers or
goods by road, handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves, and warehouses, and
transport by hand; and, regardless of the number of persons employed, such of
the undertakings enumerated in paragraph (b) and (c) of Article 1 as may be
declared by the competent authority either to be highly dangerous or to involve
unhealthy processes.
(b) the actual
working hours of persons of fifteen years of age or over in any public or
private industrial undertaking, or in any branch thereof, shall not exceed
fifty-seven in the week, except that in the raw-silk industry the limit may be
sixty hours in the week;
(c) the actual
working hours of persons under fifteen years of age in any public or private
industrial undertaking, or in any branch thereof, and of all miners of whatever
age engaged in underground work in the mines, shall in no case exceed
forty-eight in the week;
(d) the limit of
hours of work may be modified under the conditions provided for in Articles 2,
3, 4 and 5 of this Convention, but in no case shall the length of such
modification bear to the length of the basic week a proportion greater than
that which obtains in those Articles;
(e) a weekly rest
period of twenty-four consecutive hours shall be allowed to all classes of
workers;
(f) the provision
in Japanese factory legislation limiting its application to places employing
fifteen or more persons shall be amended so that such legislation shall apply
to places employing ten or more persons;
(g) the provisions
of the above paragraphs of this Article shall be brought into operation not
later than 1 July 1922, except that the provisions of Article 4 as modified by
paragraph (d) of this Article shall be brought into operation not later than 1
July 1923;
(h) the age of
fifteen prescribed in paragraph (c) of this Article shall be raised, not later
than 1 July 1925, to sixteen.
Article 10
In British India
the principle of a sixty-hour week shall be adopted for all workers in the
industries at present covered by the factory acts administered by the
Government of India, in mines, and in such branches of railway work as shall be
specified for this purpose by the competent authority. Any modification of this
limitation made by the competent authority shall be subject to the provisions
of Articles 6 and 7 of this Convention. In other respects the provisions of
this Convention shall not apply to India, but further provisions limiting the
hours of work in India shall be considered at a future meeting of the General
Conference.
Article 11
The provisions of
this Convention shall not apply to China, Persia, and Siam, but provisions
limiting the hours of work in these countries shall be considered at a future
meeting of the General Conference.
Article 12
In the application
of this Convention to Greece, the date at which its provisions shall be brought
into operation in accordance with Article 19 may be extended to not later than
1 July 1923, in the case of the following industrial undertakings:
(1)
carbon-bisulphide works,
(2) acid works,
(3) tanneries,
(4) paper mills,
(5) printing works,
(6) sawmills,
(7) warehouses for
the handling and preparation of tobacco,
(8) surface mining,
(9) foundries,
(10) lime works,
(11) dye works,
(12) glassworks
(blowers),
(13) gas works
(firemen),
(14) loading and
unloading merchandise;
and to not later
than 1 July 1924, in the case of the following industrial undertakings:
(1) mechanical industries:
machine shops for engines, safes, scales, beds, tacks, shells (sporting), iron
foundries, bronze foundries, tin shops, plating shops, manufactories of
hydraulic apparatus;
(2) constructional
industries: limekilns, cement works, plasterers' shops, tile yards,
manufactories of bricks and pavements, potteries, marble yards, excavating and
building work;
(3) textile
industries: spinning and weaving mills of all kinds, except dye works;
(4) food
industries: flour and grist-mills, bakeries, macaroni factories, manufactories
of wines, alcohol, and drinks, oil works, breweries, manufactories of ice and
carbonated drinks, manufactories of confectioners' products and chocolate,
manufactories of sausages and preserves, slaughterhouses, and butcher shops;
(5) chemical
industries: manufactories of synthetic colours, glassworks (except the
blowers), manufactories of essence of turpentine and tartar, manufactories of
oxygen and pharmaceutical products, manufactories of flaxseed oil,
manufactories of glycerine, manufactories of calcium carbide, gas works (except
the firemen);
(6) leather
industries: shoe factories, manufactories of leather goods;
(7) paper and
printing industries: manufactories of envelopes, record books, boxes, bags,
bookbinding, lithographing, and zinc-engraving shops;
(8) clothing
industries: clothing shops, underwear and trimmings, workshops for pressing,
workshops for bed coverings, artificial flowers, feathers, and trimmings, hat
and umbrella factories;
(9) woodworking
industries: joiners' shops, coopers' sheds, wagon factories, manufactories of
furniture and chairs, picture-framing establishments, brush and broom
factories;
(10) electrical
industries: power houses, shops for electrical installations;
(11) transportation
by land: employees on railroads and street cars, firemen, drivers, and carters.
Article 13
In the application
of this Convention to Rumania the date at which its provisions shall be brought
into operation in accordance with Article 19 may be extended to not later than
1 July 1924.
Article 14
The operation of
the provisions of this Convention may be suspended in any country by the
Government in the event of war or other emergency endangering the national
safety.
Article 15
The formal
ratifications of this Convention, under the conditions set forth in the
Constitution of the International Labour Organisation, shall be communicated to
the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration.
Article 16
1. Each Member of
the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this Convention engages to
apply it to its colonies, protectorates and possessions which are not fully
self-governing--
a) except where
owing to the local conditions its provisions are inapplicable; or
b) subject to such
modifications as may be necessary to adapt its provisions to local conditions.
2. Each Member
shall notify to the International Labour Office the action taken in respect of
each of its colonies, protectorates, and possessions which are not fully
self-governing.
Article 17
As soon as the
ratifications of two Members of the International Labour Organisation have been
registered with the International Labour Office, the Director-General of the
International Labour Office shall so notify all the Members of the International
Labour Organisation.
Article 18
This Convention
shall come into force at the date on which such notification is issued by the
Director-General of the International Labour Office, and it shall then be
binding only upon those Members which have registered their ratifications with
the International Labour Office. Thereafter this Convention will come into
force for any other Member at the date on which its ratification is registered
with the International Labour Office.
Article 19
Each Member which
ratifies this Convention agrees to bring its provisions into operation not
later than 1 July 1921, and to take such action as may be necessary to make
these provisions effective.
Article 20
A Member which has
ratified this Convention may denounce it after the expiration of ten years from
the date on which the Convention first comes into force, by an act communicated
to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration.
Such denunciation shall not take effect until one year after the date on which
it is registered with the International Labour Office.
Article 21
At such times as it
may consider necessary the Governing Body of the International Labour Office
shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this Convention
and shall examine the desirability of placing on the agenda of the Conference
the question of its revision in whole or in part.
Article 22
The French and
English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.