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eceive medical care throughout their lifetime. In addition, in 2004 PEMEX invested
2,826 million pesos in medical services alone. The company offers a private pension
system to its employees, hospital care for employees’ family members and siblings and
gives preference to workers’ children when filling posts at PEMEX. It also provides
benefits to its retired workers, such as special care and an annual adjustment of their
pension. 9
47. In August 2004, Royal Dutch/Shell revised its company-wide bonus scheme in order to
create incentives for staff to look beyond their specific section of the business and focus on
improving the performance of the entire company. Before the change, staff were rewarded
for both their individual performance and the success of their division. From 2005,
however, the divisional element would be dropped and a bonus added that was based on
the company’s performance. The revised scheme was designed to encourage staff to think
“enterprise first” rather than “self first.” 10
3.2. Working time
48. Setting a limit on normal working hours is essential for protecting workers’ health and
safety and for ensuring they have sufficient time to devote to their families and other
responsibilities and interests. The ILO recently examined working time laws in
109 member States and found that the primary method for limiting working hours is by
statute. Almost all countries have limits on weekly working hours, either 40 hours or
48 hours, with the former limit dominant. More than 40 per cent of countries had an upper
limit of 40 hours or less. Among the others, about equal numbers had 42- to 45-hour limits
or a 48-hour week. 11 Data suggest that most oil workers belong to a group with longer
working hours.
49. In Nigeria, oil workers work a 40-hour week with two days off. However, many oil
workers in the rest of the world work longer hours. Table 3.6 shows working hours in
different sectors in the United Kingdom in 2003. The top half of the table compares basic
normal weekly hours without overtime and shows the relatively long basic working hours
of those in the oil industry. In the oil extraction industry, average basic working time was
over 50 hours per week.
9 C. Reynoso Castillo: Industrial relations in the oil industry in Mexico (Geneva, ILO, Sectoral
Activities Programme Working Paper No. 239, 2005).
10
J. Moules: “Royal Dutch/Shell to revise staff bonus scheme”, in Financial Times (London),
30 Apr. 2004.
11 ILO: Working conditions laws 2006–07: A global review (Geneva, 2008).
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