Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its reports for 1995 and 1996.

1. Articles 3, paragraph 1, and 6, paragraph 2, of the Convention. In its previous observation the Committee noted that the Coordinating Committee for Protection concerning the Brazilian Nuclear Programme (COPRON) had been sent a proposal for amending the legislation in the light of the 1990 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). The Committee notes that, in a report received in 1995, the Government stated that COPRON would meet shortly to begin work, on a tripartite basis, on a review of the maximum doses currently authorized. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the stage reached in the work of COPRON and progress made. More generally, the Committee notes that, according to the information supplied by the Government in its 1996 report, the examination of the Basic International Basic Safety Standards jointly sponsored in 1994 by the IAEA, the WHO, the ILO and three other international organizations, is currently under way. The Government also indicates that it intends to apply these standards in the near future. The Committee therefore hopes that the Government will shortly be able to report the adoption of measures to ensure effective protection of workers and particularly of revised maximum permissible doses that conform to the 1990 Recommendations of the ICRP and the 1994 International Basic Safety Standards.

2. With regard to working conditions in the nuclear industry, on which the National Commission of Workers in Nuclear Energy (CONTREN) had commented, the Committee notes the Government's statement that the studies now under way concern three areas: nuclear installations -- particularly temporary work performed in such installations -- the storage of radioactive waste and the hospital sector. The Committee again asks the Government to provide information on the data collected in the course of the coordinated action undertaken with the social partners to assess the situation in the nuclear industry and the changes that need to be made. It also asks the Government to indicate whether the collective agreements revising working conditions, which the Government referred to in its previous reports, have been adopted and, if so, to send copies to the Office.

3. The Committee is addressing a request directly to the Government in which it again raises a number of points.