Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents Convention, 1993 (No. 174) - Colombia (Ratification: 1997)

1. The Committee notes the Government’s first and second detailed reports, including the appended legislative information. Based on the information available, the Committee concludes that legislative conformity is ensured with respect to few of the provisions of the Convention, and that clarifications are necessary as regards the application of a number of them. The Committee requests the Government to provide, with its next report, additional information on the following points.

2. Article 4 of the Convention. Formulation of a coherent national policy related to protection against the risk of major accidents and its implementation through preventive and protective measures. The Committee notes that, in accordance with article 70 of Decree Law No. 1295 of 1994 on the organization and administration of the general system of occupational risks, the National Council of Occupational Risks has the function to recommend strategies and programmes for the General System of Occupational Risks which have to be approved by the Congress of the Republic. It would be grateful if the Government would provide, in the next report, information on such strategies and programmes related to the protection of workers, the public and the environment against the risk of major accidents. The Committee also requests the Government to supply samples of programmes of occupational health destined for undertakings of high risk, which establish measures - preventive and protective ones - to control risks in such undertakings.

3. Article 5. Establishment by the competent authority of a system for the identification of major hazard installations. The Committee notes the Government’s reference to the activities of the Technical Direction of Occupational Risks, which identifies the major hazard installations on the basis of the table of Classification of Economic Activities. The Government is requested to give particulars of the system established for the identification of such installations, to indicate the manner in which the most representative organizations of employers and workers were consulted and to supply information about the revision of the Table of Economic Activities.

4. Part III of the Convention. Responsibilities of employers. The Government is requested to supply, in its next report, detailed information concerning the measures taken in order to ensure that employers identify any major hazard installation based on the system referred to in Article 5 (Article 7), notify the competent authority before any permanent closure of a major hazard installation (Article 8, paragraph 2), establish and maintain a documented system of major hazard control (Article 9), prepare, update and amend, if necessary, a safety report as well as transmit it or make it available (Articles 10, 11 and 12), present a detailed report after the major accident containing an analysis of its causes and means undertaken to mitigate damage (Article 14).

5. Part IV of the Convention. Responsibilities of competent authorities. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures taken in order to ensure that emergency plans and procedures containing provisions for the protection of the public and the environment outside the site of each major hazard installation are established by the competent authority, updated at appropriate intervals and coordinated with the relevant authorities and bodies (Article 15), that information on safety measures and the correct behaviour to adopt, in the case of a major accident, is disseminated to members of the public liable to be affected by a major accident and is provided to the States concerned where a major accident could have trans-boundary effects (Article 16), that a comprehensive siting policy arranging for the appropriate separation of proposed major hazard installations from working and residential areas and public facilities shall be established by the competent authority (Article 17).

6. Part V of the Convention. Rights and duties of workers and their representatives. Article 20, subparagraphs (c), (e) and (f). Workers’ and workers’ representatives rights to be consulted during the preparation of the safety report, emergency plan, accident report, to have access to these documents, to interrupt the activity, if justified, and to discuss with the employer potential hazards. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the legislative and/or practical measures taken to ensure that workers and their representatives will be consulted in the preparation of, and have access to, the safety report, emergency plans and procedures and accident reports; that they are enable to take corrective action and, if necessary, interrupt the activity where, on the basis of their training and experience, they have reasonable justification to believe that there is an imminent danger of a major accident, and notify their supervisor or raise the alarm; that they will be able to discuss with the employer any potential hazards they consider capable of generating a major accident and have the right to notify the competent authority of those hazards.

7. Part VI of the Convention. Responsibility of exporting States. The Committee notes the reference made by the Government to its participation in the Basel Convention on the control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal, as well as to the elaboration of fundamental Prior Informed Consent (PIC) concepts based on the Rotterdam Convention. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the legislation or other provisions adopted, including their coverage, to ensure the collection and communication to an importing State of the information on the prohibition of the use of hazardous substances, technologies or processes in the exporting State.

8. Part V of the report form. Information on practical application of the Convention. The Committee notes the statistical information provided and requests the Government to communicate with its next report further information on the manner in which the Convention is applied in practice, supplying extracts from inspection reports and, where such statistics exist, information on the number of workers covered by the measures giving effect to the Convention, disaggregated by sex if available, the number and nature of infringements reported, etc.