Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

Protection against Accidents (Dockers) Convention (Revised), 1932 (No. 32) - Algeria (Ratification: 1962)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report does not reply to its previous comments. It must therefore repeat its previous observation which read as follows:

1. Further to the comments it has been making for several years, the Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report does not contain information concerning the adoption of implementing legislation covering ports and docks, based on the general framework for the prevention of occupational risks established by Act No. 88-07 of 26 January 1988. In its latest report, while acknowledging the absence of legislation and collective agreements covering this category of workers, the Government indicates there exists a category of posts established in collective agreements that relate to cargo handling, and that dockworkers have been regularized since 1974 and that their conditions are above those required by the Convention. The Committee has been encouraging the Government to adopt the long-promised specific texts of application for a number of years. It considers the absence, since 1975, of legal texts applying the provisions of a Convention ratified in 1962 to be a serious situation. The Committee notes that there is not even a reference to the promised texts in the Government’s last report. It trusts the Government will not fail to urgently finalize the adoption of the implementing legislation based on Act No. 88-07 of 26 January 1988, with a view to ensure full conformity with the provisions of the Convention.

2. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s report does not contain the requested copies of Executive Decree No. 93-120 of 15 May 1993 on the organization of occupational medicine and Executive Decree No. 96-209 of 5 June 1996 on the composition, organization and functioning of the national council on occupational safety and health, copies of provisions concerning safety and health contained in the collective agreement governing employment relations at the port enterprise, ARZEW, and in the internal regulations of the port enterprise of Algiers. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply copies of these documents with its next report.

3. In its previous comments, the Committee had noted the information that copies of the "documents 1 and 2" referred to in section 2 of the Inter-Ministerial Order of 5 November 1989 as establishing the supervisory procedure and as being attachments to the same Order, had been requested from the Ministry of Transport and that they were to be supplied to the Committee as soon as they were received. Please supply copies of these documents with the next report.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comment in 2003.]