Abstract
The purpose of this article is to form a comprehensive scientific understanding of the international legal regulation of normal working hours at the universal level, as well as to develop proposals for the adoption of a new international act in this area. To achieve this goal, the documents of the United Nations and the International Labour Organization, the provisions of which regulate the social relations in the labour sphere under consideration, were analyzed. The work also presents researches that, on the one hand, indicate the detrimental effect of excessive working hours on the physical and mental state of workers, and, on the other hand, emphasize the need to reduce the length of working hours currently recognized as normal. In addition, statistical data on the number of working hours per week in different regions of the world were reviewed. The study uses general and specific methods of scientific knowledge, which include methods of formal logic, comparative legal, historical, etc. Based on the analysis of acts of universal international organizations, modern researches indicating the advisability of reducing the currently valid normal working hours and statistical data on the average number of working hours per week in different regions of the world, the advisability of developing and adopting a corresponding act of the International Labour Organization establishing a shorter working time is substantiated.