Committee Human Rights Committee

Issue Measures to Combat Negative Health Effects caused by

Excessively Long Working Hours

Name Carmel Limcaoco

Position Head President

Introduction
In recent decades, new economic trends have resulted in the development of working
hours that are individualized, decentralized, and increasingly diverse. This has led to
greater tension between the demands of corporations and the ability of their employees
to deliver; in many cases, workers’ needs and preferences in terms of working hours are
overlooked in favor of enterprises’ business requirements. This is especially prevalent in
the worldwide movement towards a “24/7 economy,” which highlights the concept that in
order for a “corporation to be competitive, individual employees must continually
perform” (IGI Global).

This phenomenon has caused developments that are potentially detrimental to the
workforce concerned, such as the increased use of results-based employment
relationships and the division of working time into smaller segments in order to more
closely tailor staffing needs to customer requirements. Furthermore, with the movement
towards the 24/7 economy, new issues begin to be raised, such as time-related social
inequalities, notably in relation to gender; “workers’ abilities to balance their paid work
with their personal lives; and even the relationship between working hours and social
times” (International Labor Organization).

Definition of Key Terms

Definitions drawn from the UN, whether the International Labor Organization (ILO) or
the World Health Organization (WHO) are denoted by *.

Term Definition (source)

Excessively Long Working Hours The ILO limits the amount of working time for any
individual to 48 hours a week. This limit serves to
“promote higher productivity while safeguarding
workers' physical and mental health.” (ILO)

Negative Health Effects Health effects are any deviations in health, or in

normal functions of the human body, resulting from
exposure to a particular source; negative health
effects connote that these changes in health are
detrimental either to the mental, physical, or
emotional health of an individual. (Business
Dictionary)

Health* “A state of complete physical, mental and social

well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity.” (ILO)
 Unemployment* “Defined as those of working age who were not in
employment, carried out activities to seek
employment during a specified recent period and
were currently available to take up employment
given a job opportunity.” (ILO)

Unemployment Rate* Expresses the number of unemployed as a percent

of the labour force.” (ILO)

Employment* “Defined as all those of working age who, during a

short reference period, were engaged in any activity
to produce goods or provide services for pay or
profit. They comprise employed persons "at work",
i.e. who worked in a job for at least one hour; and
employed persons "not at work" due to temporary
absence from a job, or to working-time
arrangements (such as shift work, flexitime and
compensatory leave for overtime).” (ILO)

Labor Force* “Comprises all persons of working age who furnish

the supply of labour for the production of goods and
services during a specified time-reference period. It
refers to the sum of all persons of working age who
are employed and those who are unemployed.”
(ILO)
 Industry* “Includes manufacturing, construction, mining and
quarrying; and electricity, gas and water supply.”
(ILO)

Background Information
Despite the standards set by the International Labor Organization since its foundation in
1919, many multinational corporations (MNCs) or even local companies overwork
employees to the point of health risk. Long working hours, according to the Ohio State
University, have been linked to increased occurrences of cancer and heart disease.
Work weeks that average 60 hours or more, which is 20 hours over the recommended
amount by the ILO, appear to triple the risk of diabetes, cancer, heart trouble, and
arthritis. The International Labor Organization (ILO)’s 2019 report titled “Safety and
health at the heart of the future of work: Building on 100 years of experience” details
how stress and illness caused by overtime contribute to the deaths of nearly 2.8 million
workers per year internationally, while an additional 374 million people get injured or fall
ill as a result of their work.

A very general trend is that citizens of high income countries (HICs) such as Germany,
the United Kingdom, and the United States of America enjoy less work hours per week,
as the average amount of work hours per week for those nations are 26, 32, and 34
respectively. However, this trend definitely has its anomalies. Citizens of other
European nations, such as Greece, work 39 hour weeks. In fact, Greece’s citizens work
the fourth most hours globally. The top three countries where civilians have the longest
working hours on average are Mexico (43 hours), Costa Rica (42), and South Korea (40
hours). Please note that these are averages, and within many nations and depending
on socio-economic circumstances such as gender, marital status, and age, individual
working hours may vary and may very well exceed these averages significantly.

International headlines
There are no major global headlines regarding the issue, but rather smaller headlines
that pertain to the development of the issue in nations. For example, a 2015 BBC article
details how Sweden has begun to move towards shorter working hours for the
workforce in the interest of wellbeing and higher productivity at work. Conversely, an
2014 article from the Washington Post describes how work hours are actually
lengthening in the USA as there is no federal limit to these hours, and a 2017
Independent UK article headlines how Amazon workers worked 55 hour weeks in the
United Kingdom as a result of compulsory overtime sessions and even timed bathroom
breaks, highlighting the pursuit of economic growth by MNCs in favor of their
employees’ wellbeing.
Meanwhile, in Asia, a 2017 ABS-CBN article revealed how Japan unveiled its
first-ever plan to limit overtime at an outrageous additional 25 hours per week as the
new minimum. This plan was provoked by the suicide of a young employee who
regularly logged working more than 100 hours a week overtime. A 2018 Washington
Post article, conversely, communicates how South Korea, on the other hand, has
dropped its limit to 52 hours per week including overtime.

Major Countries and Organisations Involved

International Labor Organization (ILO)
The United Nations has attempted to advocate for human rights in this issue largely
through the International Labor Organization (ILO), a UN agency established in 1919,
whose mandate is to promote social justice for the workforce by implementing
international labor standards. The ILO has 187 member states and is the driving force
behind the UN’s advocacy in promoting appropriate work hours.

For this political issue, there are no major countries involved specifically as all member
states struggle to some extent with the implementation of the ILO instruments detailed
below in the timeline section- both HICs and LICs alike, as seen through the
background section.

Timeline of Events
Since its foundation, the ILO has passed many instruments that attempt to advocate for
workers’ rights, particularly in terms of excessive working hours. Below is a list of some
of the major ones:
Date of Event Description of Event

November 1919 ILO establishes Hours of Work (Industry)

Convention and the

November 1921 ILO establishes Weekly Rest (Industry)

Convention

June 1930 ILO establishes Hours of Work (Commerce and

Offices) Convention; both conventions
standardized a 48 hour working week, with a
maximum of 8 hours allocated per day.

June 1957 ILO establishes Weekly Rest (Commerce and

Offices) Convention; this convention, along with
the Weekly Rest (Industry) Convention of 1921,
established the general standard that workers
shall enjoy a rest period of at least 24
consecutive hours every seven days.

June 1962 ILO’s Reduction of Hours of Work

Recommendation; supplemented Forty-Hour
Week Convention
 April 28, 2003 The ILO establishes the World Day for Safety
and Health at Work, which is an annual
international campaign that promotes safe,
healthy and decent work.

October 2018 The ILO’s 20th annual International Conference

of Labour Statisticians took place in Geneva
Switzerland.

2019 Centennial year of the ILO.

Solutions (Past and Possible)

Many of the solutions that have been proposed in solving this issue appear in the form
of ILO instruments, which can be read about in further detail in the timeline section and
in a link found in the resources for further reading section. These instruments and
conventions attempt to standardize regulations internationally and enforce them, but
they are continually violated in the interest of economic growth and other factors.
Smaller scale solutions, particularly on national levels, come in the form of governments
attempting to limit overtime hours or general work hours per week, which can be read
about further in the background section. Despite these attempts, these established
regulations continue to be violated on the local and community levels in smaller
corporations, particularly in low income countries (LICs).
Possible solutions could attempt to address these smaller violations of standardized
international regulations, and could even attempt to tackle the violation of national
regulations on the local and community scales. However, such solutions would require
flexibility for HICs and LICs alike as the situations of excessive working hours vary
based on the socio-economic infrastructure of a nation.

Resources for further Reading

Please list major cases of the involvement of the UN, UN resolutions, UN documents
and treaties and other items related to the issue. For every description, please add a
link to the resource and follow the format below:

● Various ILO Instruments Official Timeline (Complete)​ (1919-present)

● Draft Resolution for Measurement of Working Time​ (2007)
○ For the purpose of the ILO’s 18th International Conference of Labour
Statisticians that was convened by the Governing Body of the International
Labour Office
● Report of the 20th​ ​International Conference of Labour Statisticians​ (October 2018)
● ILO Report: Safety and Health at the heart of the Future of Work: Building on 100
years of experience​ (April 2019)
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION...
★ Various other documents and reports can be found by looking through the ​ILO
Publications website​.
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