Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Medical Examination of Young Persons (Non-Industrial Occupations) Convention, 1946 (No. 78) - Honduras (Ratification: 1960)

Article 4 of the Convention. Medical examination until the age of 21 years. In its previous comments the Committee noted that there were no provisions in the national legislation requiring young persons between the ages of 18 and 21 years who are authorized to carry out unhealthy or hazardous work to undergo regular medical examination for fitness for employment.

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its report under the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), that a draft of a revised Labour Code is in the process of adoption. Observing that Honduras ratified the Convention over 50 years ago, the Committee urges the Government to take the necessary measures, including in the context of the Labour Code reform, to ensure that the national legislation sets out a requirement that young persons between 18 and 21 years of age in occupations that involve high health risks undergo medical examination and regular re-examinations for employment.

Article 7(2) and Part V of the report form. Ensuring the application of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment to children engaged either on their own account or on account of their parents, and application of the Convention in practice. The Committee previously noted that section 126 of the Code of Childhood and Adolescence requires employers to keep a register of all minors employed. It noted, however, that neither the abovementioned Code nor the Labour Code make any provision for measures of identification to ensure the application of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment to children and young persons engaged either on their own account or on account of their parents in itinerant trading or in any other occupation carried on in the streets or in places to which the public has access. The Government stated that child labour had been incorporated in the duties of the General Labour Inspectorate for the purpose of applying this provision of the Convention and that it had examined the possibility of extending application of the national legislation to the informal sector.

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government to the effect that the national legislation prohibits work by children and young persons under 18 years of age in itinerant trading or any other occupation carried on in the street or in places to which the public has access. The Committee notes with interest in this connection that Agreement No. STSS-074-2008 of 7 April 2008, pursuant to which section 8 of the Child Labour Regulations of 10 October 2001 has been amended and an extensive list of hazardous types of work prohibited for persons under 18 years of age has been adopted, bans minors under 18 years of age from itinerant trading (section 8-A(5)(e)) and non-itinerant trading in bars, taverns, billiards rooms and discotheques (section 8-B(6)(a)). The Committee takes due note of the information provided by the Government concerning the measures taken and the results obtained in the context of implementing the Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour to ensure that effect is given to the Convention in practice. It notes in particular that the labour inspectorate pays regular visits – eight inspections a month on average – to enterprises employing children. The Committee nevertheless notes that the Government provides no information on measures taken by the labour inspectorate to monitor the application of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment to children and young persons engaged either on their own account or on account of their parents. The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide information in its next report allowing it to ascertain how the system of medical examination for fitness for employment is applied to children and young persons working on their own account or on account of their parents, such as extracts of labour inspection reports and statistics of the number of infringements reported.