Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Maximum Weight Convention, 1967 (No. 127) - Nicaragua (Ratification: 1976)

Article 7 of the Convention. Young persons and women. In its previous comments the Committee requested the Government to indicate the meaning of the terms “manual transport of loads whose weight involves physical effort” and “work classified as exceeding their psycho-physical motor strength”. The Committee notes the Government’s information regarding the List of Hazardous Jobs published in La Gaceta (Official Journal) No. 221 of 14 November 2006, and the Ministerial Resolution on Health and Safety at Work on the maximum weight of load which may be transported manually by a worker. According to the Government, the phrases whose meaning the Committee queried, refer, in particular, to article 3(f) of the Resolution “Heavy continuous lifting, handling, transporting sacks, barrels, boxes, crates of drinks, quarried rocks, in a repetitive manner”. In the Committee’s view, doubts still remain as to the scope of the restrictions on the employment of young people. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the maximum load that may be lifted or transported occasionally by women between 15 and 18 years of age, and for men.

Part V of the report form. Application in practice. In its previous comments the Committee noted that, according to the transitory provision of the 1998 Ministerial Resolution on health and safety relating to the maximum weight of a load which may be transported manually by a worker, enterprises and work centres will have a period of not more than one year to modify operations and processes and adopt measures for the manual transport of loads, and asked the Government to provide information on the practical implementation of this Resolution and hence, the provisions of the Convention. It reminded the Government that this information should include summaries of the reports of the General Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health, which is responsible, pursuant to section 17 of the Resolution, for supervising and verifying compliance with the Resolution’s provisions; and statistics on the number and nature of contraventions reported and the action taken on them. The Committee notes that the Government has not provided this information. It requests it to do so and also to provide detailed statistics resulting from the work carried out by the labour inspectorate.