Part-time worker

The term part-time worker means an employed person whose normal hours of work are less than those of comparable full-time workers. The normal hours of work may be calculated weekly or on average over a given period of employment.

The General Conference of the International Labour Organization in 1994 recognized the importance of productive and freely chosen employment for all workers, the economic importance of part-time work, the need for employment policies to take into account the role of part-time work in facilitating additional employment opportunities, and the need to ensure protection for part-time workers in the areas of access to employment, working conditions and social security.

Measures shall be taken to ensure that part-time workers receive the same protection as that accorded to comparable full-time workers in respect of:

• (a) the right to organize, the right to bargain collectively and the right to act as workers' representatives;
• (b) occupational safety and health;
• (c) discrimination in employment and occupation.

Measures appropriate to national law and practice shall be taken to ensure that part-time workers do not, solely because they work part time, receive a basic wage which, calculated proportionately on an hourly, performance-related, or piece-rate basis, is lower than the basic wage of comparable full-time workers, calculated according to the same method.

C175 - Part-Time Work Convention (No.175)