Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1988, published 75th ILC session (1988)

The Committee notes that the Government has not supplied a report and that it therefore has no information in reply to the general observation made at its session of 1987 with respect to the Convention. This observation was formulated as follows:

The Committee was informed that the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany has drawn the attention of the Office to certain difficulties encountered in applying the Convention to containers and suggested that it might be acceptable not to mark the total weight on the container but to enter it in the appropriate documents. In the Governing Body Working Party on International Labour Standards, the same Government made a proposal to revise the Convention in order to take into account modern methods of cargo transport.

The Committee observes that, in referring to "any package or object of one thousand kilograms and more", Article 1 of the Convention is worded in such general terms as to cover containers, to which the obligation to mark the gross weight plainly and durably on the outside before their being loaded on a ship or vessel should therefore apply. However, it may be appropriate to ascertain whether the application of the Convention to modern means of cargo transport such as containers is meeting with difficulties.

The Committee would be grateful if governments would provide in their next reports on the application of the Convention detailed information on the manner in which the Convention is applied to containers, both in law and in practice, and to indicate any difficulties encountered in this regard.

The Committee hopes that the Government will not fail to supply the information requested with its next report.