Observation (CEACR) - adoptée 2007, publiée 97ème session CIT (2008)

The Committee notes the information, as well as the statistics, supplied by the Government in its report and wishes to draw its attention on the following points.

1. Restrictive nature of the enumeration of the pathological symptoms resulting from exposure to the corresponding substances. In conformity with the provisions of national legislation, for each risk-producing substance, the left-hand column of the list of occupational diseases in Decree No. 658/96 gives a restrictive enumeration of the pathological symptoms resulting from exposure to the corresponding substances. It also provides for an annual review whereby new infections recognized as having their origin in exposure to a risk-producing substance in the course of an occupational activity may be added to the list with the prior agreement of the Standing Advisory Committee (section 40 of Act No. 24.557). In these circumstances, the restriction is, according to the Government, purely technical, since if the causal link between the risk-producing substance, the disease and exposure during work is proven, it is possible to request the above Committee to approve the incorporation of the disease in the list, thus recognizing that it is occupational in origin. The Committee nevertheless recalls that, by listing, for each disease in the schedule, the trades, industries and processes liable to cause the disease, the Convention aims to relieve workers in the trades and industries listed from the burden of proving that they have actually been exposed to the risk of the disease in question, which in some cases can be particularly difficult. Furthermore, the Convention is deliberately worded in general terms so as to cover all occupational diseases and all poisoning resulting from exposure to the substances listed in the schedule to the Convention when they affect workers engaged in the trades, industries and processes listed in the schedule. In view of the objectives pursued by the Convention, the Committee hopes that the Government will be able to reconsider this matter and that in its next report it will be in a position to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to change the current legislation so that the pathological symptoms corresponding to the diseases in the schedule to the Convention are non-restrictive. In the meantime, the Committee asks the Government to provide information on the working of the procedure for recognition of new occupational diseases by the Standing Advisory Committee, particularly as regards the determination of the causal link between the disease, the risk-producing substance and occupational exposure.

2. In addition, the Committee wishes to make the following remarks with regard to certain items in the schedule:

(a)   In its previous comments the Committee had stressed the need to add to the item on anthrax a reference to the loading and unloading or transport of merchandise. The Government had stated, in this respect, that this reference covers the possibility of a worker coming into contact with organic remains contaminated by the anthrax bacillus and that this situation is provided for in the legislation by the final paragraph of the item on anthrax which mentions “workers who showed no symptom of the disease and, by exposure to the agent, develop certain of the clinical symptoms described”. The Committee nevertheless expresses the hope that in the annual review of the list of occupational diseases it will be possible to add the loading, unloading or transport of merchandise in general to the activities likely to cause anthrax, in order to remove any ambiguity from the legislation. In this connection, the Committee recalls that the provisions of the Convention on this point aim to establish a presumption of the occupational origin of the disease in favour of workers called upon to handle products which are so diverse in origin that it would be difficult if not impossible for them to prove that the merchandise transported was in contact with infected animals or remains of animals.

(b)   The Committee also requests the Government to complete the enumeration of the diseases under the item on silica by an express reference to silicosis with or without pulmonary tuberculosis, if necessary with a reservation that the silicosis must be a determining factor in the incapacity or death, as the Convention allows.

(c)   Ultimately, the Committee asks the Government to indicate whether requests for recognition of the occupational nature of diseases have been made, under the abovementioned complementary recognition mechanism, by persons suffering from epitheliomatous cancer of the skin but who have not fulfilled the condition of at least ten years of exposure established by national legislation. If so, please provide information on any decisions taken in this respect by the competent authorities.