Interviewer instructions
According to the ILO Convention No. 1 (1919), the “working hours of persons employed in any public or private industrial undertakings 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 exceptions hereinafter provided for” certain categories of workers.
Excessive hours of work can be detrimental to physical and mental health and they impede balance between work and family life. Excessive hours of work are often a signal of inadequate hourly pay and low earnings in the main job.
The purpose of the question is to distinguish those working long hours for economic reasons from the others. If more than one reason is given, enter the first applicable answer category in the list:
Enter “1” if the person worked more than 48 hours during the week because he or she wanted more earnings.
Enter “2” if long hours of work are the requirement of the job. This may happen during the harvest period in agricultural activities or in the case of medical doctors during hospital shifts.
Enter “3” if the reported long hours of work during the reference week were exceptional, for example, due to a deadline or the simultaneous absence of several workers, or due to an exceptionally high volume of demand.
Enter “4” if the long hours of work during the reference week were voluntary, for example, because the person is ambitious or is passionate of his or her work.
Enter “5” if other reasons, not fitting any of the above 4 categories, are reported. In such cases, it would be greatly helpful if the reason could be explained in a few words. Write the line number of the member with code 5, the column no. and the specific reason for working more than 48 hours in the box found at the bottom of the questionnaire.
