Preamble
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Forty-ninth Session on 2 June 1965, and
Having adopted the Minimum Age (Underground work) Convention, 1965, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain further proposals with regard to the minimum age for admission to employment underground in mines, which is included in the fourth item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation,
adopts this twenty-second day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred sixty-five, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Minimum Age (Underground Work) Recommendation, 1965:
- 1.
- (1) For the purpose of this Recommendation, the term mine means any undertaking, whether public or private, for the extraction of any substance from under the surface of the earth by means involving the employment of persons underground.
- (2) The provisions of this Recommendation concerning employment or work underground in mines include employment or work underground in quarries.
- 2. Where the minimum age for admission to employment or work underground in mines is less than 16 years, measures should be taken as speedily as possible to raise it to that level.
- 3.
- (1) The minimum age for admission to employment or work underground in mines should be progressively raised, with a view to attaining a minimum age of 18 years.
- (2) Each Member should work towards the objective set forth in subparagraph (1) of this Paragraph within the limits of its possibilities, taking into account especially the dangers inherent in employment underground in mines, and also the development of educational facilities, including those for the vocational preparation of future miners, the minimum school-leaving age, the minimum age for admission to other industrial occupations and other relevant factors.
- 4. Persons between the age specified for the purpose of the Minimum Age (Underground Work) Convention, 1965, and a higher age to be laid down in each country and not to be less than 18 years should be employed or work underground in mines only--
- (a) for purposes of apprenticeship or other systematic vocational training provided under adequate supervision by competent persons with technical knowledge and practical experience of the work; and
- (b) under conditions determined by the competent authority relating to the places of work and occupations permitted and the measures of systematic medical and safety supervision to be applied: Provided that if a young person to whom this Paragraph applies has completed apprenticeship or other systematic vocational training, he may, under the conditions provided for in clause (b), be employed underground for purposes other than such training.
- 5.
- (1) There should be special provisions concerning the minimum age for employment or work underground in mines--
- (a) on certain specified jobs which are harmful to health;
- (b) under certain specified conditions which are harmful to health; and
- (c) on certain specified jobs which may endanger the safety of the worker and that of other persons.
- (2) The competent authority in each country should determine the jobs and conditions in question and should specify a sufficiently high minimum age appropriate to each which in no case should be less than 18 years.
- 6.
- (1) Measures should be taken to meet the problems of persons who wish to work in mines but are too young for employment or work underground because the minimum age for admission to such employment or work is higher than the minimum school-leaving age. These measures should be related to or integrated with measures to educate, train and utilise all youth in the country.
- (2) The measures to be taken in accordance with subparagraph (1) of this Paragraph might include one or more of the following:
- (a) employment in surface work with appropriate training;
- (b) vocational training on the surface designed to prepare the persons concerned for their future occupations;
- (c) further education and vocational guidance;
- (d) raising the minimum school-leaving age.
- 7. The competent authority in each country should consult the most representative organisations of employers and workers concerned before determining general policies of implementation and before adopting regulations in pursuance of the terms of this Recommendation.
