International
Labour Organization
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,
Having been convened at Washington by the Government of the United States of America on the 29 October 1919, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to women's employment; during the night, which is part of the third 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 Night Work (Women) Convention, 1919, for ratification by the Members of the International Labour Organisation in accordance with the provisions 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.
2. The competent authority in each country shall define the line of division which separates industry from commerce and agriculture.
Article 2
1. For the purpose of this Convention, the term night signifies a period of at least eleven consecutive hours, including the interval between ten o'clock in the evening and five o'clock in the morning.
2. In those countries where no Government regulation as yet applies to the employment of women in industrial undertakings during the night, the term night may provisionally, and for a maximum period of three years, be declared by the Government to signify a period of only ten hours, including the interval between ten o'clock in the evening and five o'clock in the morning.
Article 3
Women without distinction of age shall not be employed during the night 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.
Article 4
Article 3 shall not apply--
(a) in cases of force majeure, when in any undertaking there occurs an interruption of work which it was impossible to foresee, and which is not of a recurring character;
(b) in cases where the work has to do with raw materials or materials in course of treatment which are subject to rapid deterioration, when such night work is necessary to preserve the said materials from certain loss.
Article 5
In India and Siam, the application of Article 3 of this Convention may be suspended by the Government in respect to any industrial undertaking, except factories as defined by the national law. Notice of every such suspension shall be filed with the International Labour Office.
Article 6
In industrial undertakings which are influenced by the seasons and in all cases where exceptional circumstances demand it, the night period may be reduced to ten hours on sixty days of the year.
Article 7
In countries where the climate renders work by day particularly trying to the health, the night period may be shorter than prescribed in the above Articles, provided that compensatory rest is accorded during the day.
Article 8
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 9
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 10
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 11
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 12
Each Member which ratifies this Convention agrees to bring its provisions into operation not later than 1 July 1922, and to take such action as may be necessary to make these provisions effective.
Article 13
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 14
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 15
The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
Cross references
REVISED:C41:The Convention was revised in 1934 by Convention No. 41
REVISED:C89:The Convention was revised in 1948 by Convention No. 89