Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Minimum Age (Fishermen) Convention, 1959 (No. 112) - Peru (Ratification: 1962)

Article 2 of the Convention. Minimum age. The Committee refers to its previous comment, in which it asked the Government for clarifications on the regulations in force regarding the minimum age for admission to employment in fishing. It notes that section 51(1) of the Code for Children and Young Persons sets the minimum age for admission to employment in industrial fishing at 17 years. It also notes that under section E-020110 of the appendix to Supreme Decree No. 005-2010-DE of 7 July 2010, the minimum age for registering as a worker in the fishing sector is 18 years. However, young people aged 16 years or more may be allowed on board fishing vessels as part of their training with the written consent of their parents or guardians and the permission of the port authorities and subject to compliance with the provisions of the youth vocational training agreement. The Committee notes that, in a previous report, the Government indicated that the corresponding provisions of Supreme Decree No. 028-DE/MGP of 25 May 2011, which was amended by Supreme Decree No. 005-2010-DE mentioned above, only applied to work in artisanal fishing. Nevertheless, the Committee understands that the latter Decree does not exclude artisanal fishing from its scope and therefore requests the Government to provide clarifications in this regard. The Committee also notes that a preliminary draft of a new Code for Children and Young Persons was drawn up in 2011 and that in section 67 it sets the minimum age for admission to employment at 15, with no other distinction being made in terms of sectors of activity. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of the adoption process of this new Code and of any new laws or regulations that would change the minimum age for admission to employment in industrial or artisanal fishing.

The Committee also notes the adoption of Supreme Decree No. 003-2010-MIMDES of 20 April 2010, which approves a detailed list of jobs and activities which are hazardous or harmful to the health and morals of young persons and in which they may not be employed. However, the Committee understands that hazardous work in the industrial and artisanal fishing sectors are defined in a more flexible manner in the latter text than in Supreme Decree No. 007-2006-MIMDES of 20 July 2006, which was in force previously. The Committee requests the Government to provide further clarifications on the types of work in the fishing sector that are currently considered to be of a hazardous nature under Supreme Decree No. 003-2010-MIMDES. In this regard, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the report entitled Children in hazardous work: What we know, what we need to do, published in 2011 by the International Labour Office, which lists the risks associated with the different types of work carried out on board fishing vessels.

Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee notes that Peru benefited from ILO technical assistance in the context of a three-year (2008–11) project for the rational and sustainable development of the fishing sector, funded by the Government of Spain. In this connection, it notes the publication by the ILO in September 2009 of a report on work and employment in the fishing sector in Ecuador and Peru, according to which 3.1 per cent of workers in artisanal fishing are young people between 11 and 17 years of age. The Committee requests the Government to provide any documents available containing more precise information on the employment of young people under 15 years of age in artisanal fishing.

The Committee also draws the Government’s attention to the fact that, under Article 10(4)(e) of the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), where a State party to Convention No. 112 accepts the obligations under Convention No. 138 for maritime fishing and sets, in accordance with Article 2 of that Convention, a general minimum age for admission to employment of not less than 15 years, this shall, ipso jure, involve the immediate denunciation of Convention No. 112. Consequently, if the preliminary draft of the new Code for Children and Young Persons, and more specifically section 67, is adopted and if the Government makes a declaration to the ILO Director-General in compliance with Article 2(2) of Convention No. 138, raising the minimum age for admission to employment from one to 15 years, the declaration would have the effect of the immediate denunciation of Convention No. 112. The Committee hopes that the Government will complete the process aimed to raise the general minimum age for admission to employment or work under Convention No. 138 to 15 years and requests it to keep the Office informed of the progress made in this regard.

Finally, the Committee recalls that the Work in Fishing Convention, 2007 (No. 188) revises and consolidates the majority of ILO Conventions on work in the fishing sector, including Convention No. 112. In particular, Article 9 of Convention No. 188 raises the minimum age for work on board a fishing vessel from 15 to 16 years and provides that the competent authority may authorize a minimum age of 15 years for persons who are no longer subject to compulsory schooling and who are engaged in vocational training in fishing, and prohibits work at night for fishers under the age of 18 years. In this regard, the Committee emphasizes that the ratification of Convention No. 188 would also entail the automatic denunciation of Convention No. 112. The Committee notes that tripartite meetings on the possible ratification of Convention No. 188 were held in 2008 in the framework of the National Labour Council and requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any decision that may be taken on this matter.