Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1993, published 80th ILC session (1993)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government's report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee noted from the first report of the Government that the situation in the country does not yet permit the adoption of measures to give effect to the Convention. It hopes that the necessary measures may be adopted in the near future to ensure the full application of the Convention on the following points:

Articles 3 and 4 of the Convention. Section 16 of Decree No. 6341 of 24 October 1951, as amended, under which the industrial physician must carry out pre-recruitment and periodical medical examinations of wage earners in order to establish their fitness and the kind of work they are suitable for, does not suffice to guarantee that a worker considered fit for a work involving the manual transport of loads does not transport loads that are too heavy for his health or safety. Furthermore, it applies only to undertakings employing more than 20 workers. Provisions should be adopted to prohibit the employer in a general way fron requiring or allowing a worker to transport manually a load that, by reason of its weight, might jeopardize his health or safety or to lay down the maximum weight that may be transported manually by an adult workers.

Article 5. The report merely indicated that persons whose occupation is the manual transport of loads are trained for this type of activity. Under the present Article, measures must be taken to ensure that any worker assigned to manual transport of loads other than light loads receives, prior to such assignment, adequate training or instruction in working techniques.

Article 6. This Article provides for measures to promote as great a use as possible of suitable technical devices in order to limit or to facilitate the manual transport of loads.

Article 7. Section 23 of the Labour Code and the second schedule to the Code place restrictions on the assignment of young workers under 16 years of age to the manual transport of loads other than light loads. To give full effect to this Article of the Convention measures must be taken:

(a) to place restrictions on the assignment to such work of a young person of from 16 to 18 years of age and of women;

(b) to fix a maximum weight for persons under 18 years of age and for women.

The Committee hopes that the next report will indicate the measures taken or under consideration in this connection. It points out that these measures must apply to all branches of activity for which there is a system of labour inspection, in accordance with Article 2, paragraph 2, of the Convention, and that they must be adopted in consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and workers concerned, as provided by Article 8 of the Convention.