Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) - Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (Ratification: 1984)

The Committee notes the information supplied in the Government's report and requests the Government to provide additional information on the following points.

Article 4, paragraph 1, Article 5(b) and (d), Article 7 and Article 11(e) of the Convention. The Committee notes from the Government's report that the National Council on Prevention and Health and Safety at Work, provided for in section 8 of the Basic Act of 1986 on prevention, working conditions and the working environment, has not yet been established. The Committee refers to its general observation of 1990 in which it noted that progress towards the development of national occupational safety and health policies is slow. The main objective of the Convention, however, is precisely the promotion of a coherent, national policy better to respond to the difficulties encountered in the workplace in respect of safety and health. The Government is requested, therefore, to indicate the steps taken toward creating a National Council as provided for in the Basic Act with the task of developing a national occupational safety and health policy.

Article 8. The Committee notes that section 8(b) of the Basic Act of 1986 on prevention, working conditions and the working environment provides that the National Council on Prevention and Health and Safety at Work shall ensure observance of all the standards contained in the Act and in the regulations issued under it. Section 15(1)(i) of the Basic Act empowers the National Institute of Prevention and Health and Safety at Work to make suggestions to the Council regarding standards which should be issued in support of the mechanisms for putting the policy it formulates into practice. Section 41 of the Basic Act provides that the Regulations on Industrial Health and Safety in force at the time of adoption of the Act shall govern matters concerning the protection of the health, safety and welfare of workers until new regulations are issued under the present Act. The Committee notes that no new regulations have been issued under the Act to give effect to the national policy concerning working conditions and working environment to be elaborated by virtue of section 8(a) of the Basic Act. It would once again emphasise that the creation of the National Council on Prevention and Health and Safety at Work and the development of a national occupational safety and health policy and measures for its implementation, as called for by section 8 of the Basic Act, appear necessary to fulfil the purpose in the Act to guarantee conditions of safety, health and welfare to workers in a working environment which is favourable to the exercise of their physical and mental facilities, as stated in section 1 of the Basic Act. The Government is requested to indicate the progress made towards creating the National Council and establishing the regulations necessary for the implementation of the national occupational safety and health policy called for by the Basic Act.

Article 11. The Government made reference in its report to a text concerning instructions on technical criteria and procedures for the control and handling of toxic, dangerous or radio-active substances which was not transmitted to the Office. The Government is requested to provide a copy of this document with its next report.

Article 11(f). The Government has referred in its report to annual statistics which are reported to the Parliament. The Committee would recall, however, that this Article refers to the introduction of systems for the examination of the risks which chemical, physical and biological agents pose to workers' health. Such systems would permit the analysis of new substances and would provide useful information for determining whether such substances should be used in the workplace and under what conditions. The Government is requested, therefore, to indicate the measures taken to introduce systems for the examination of the risks which these agents pose to workers' health.

Article 12(b) and (c). The Government has referred in its report to the enforcement carried out by occupational safety and health inspectors. The Government is requested to indicate the safety and health standards used by inspectors as concerns the design, manufacture, import or transfer of machinery, equipment or substances. The Government is further requested to indicate how the state approval system functions so as to ensure that any machinery or substances which do not meet established standards cannot be used or imported.

Article 17. As the Government did not provide any information in its latest report concerning the application of this Article, the Government is again requested to indicate the measures taken to ensure that whenever two or more undertakings engage in simultaneous activities at one workplace, they collaborate in applying the requirements of the Convention.