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The Committee has taken note of the information supplied by the Government in its report and of the text of the "Instructions on Safety and Health in Seaport Work" communicated as an annex to the report.

1. Article 11, paragraph 7, of the Convention. In the comments which the Committee has been making since 1965 it has pointed out to the Government the need to take measures to ensure the application of this provision of the Convention.

In its latest reports (of 1987 and 1991), the Government refers to some provisions of the "Instructions on Safety and Health in Seaport Work". The Committee observes that the sections mentioned by the Government contain the provisions concerning persons suitable for work with ship loading and unloading machinery and concerning the general principles for the use of handling gear with such machinery. The above-mentioned provision of the Convention spells out the special requirements for a specific case, namely: that in which the working space in a hold is confined to the square of the hatch, in which case it is unlawful to make hooks fast in the fastenings of bales of cotton or similar goods and to use can-hooks for raising or lowering a barrel when their use is likely to be unsafe.

The Committee hopes that the Government will not fail to adopt, in the near future, the appropriate measures to give effect to the above-mentioned provision of the Convention; it requests the Government to inform it of all progress made in that respect.

2. Item V of the report form. The Committee takes note of the Government's statement in its report that it does not keep statistics in the required form in view of the unimportance of the cases observed, which represent no more than minor misconduct. The Committee trusts that the Government will supply it in its next report with any information at its disposal concerning the practical application of the Convention, for example summaries of inspection reports, data on the number of workers covered by the legislation, etc.