Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1992, published 79th ILC session (1992)

Minimum Age (Underground Work) Convention, 1965 (No. 123) - Gabon (Ratification: 1968)

Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention. In the comments it has been making since 1973, the Committee has drawn the Government's attention to the need to amend section 2(5) of Decree No. 275 of 5 December 1962, so as to prohibit the employment of young people under the age of 18 not only in extraction and earth work, but in all underground employment or work in mines and quarries. The Government considers that Decree No. 275 is in keeping with the spirit of the Convention, but it nonetheless indicates in its report that the comments of the Committee of Experts will be examined when all implementing regulations are reviewed following the adoption of the new Labour Code. The Committee hopes that when the review takes place, measures will be adopted to bring the legislation into harmony with the Convention on this point.

Article 4, paragraphs 4(b) and 5. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes from the Government's report that the requirements of the Convention on this point will be met by the new Labour Code. It hopes that the measures contemplated will provide for registers to be kept by employers indicating the date on which young people between 18 and 20 years of age were employed or worked underground for the first time in the enterprise, and for these registers to be made available to labour inspectors and workers' representatives when the latter so request.

The Committee requests the Government to supply information on the practical application of the Convention, stating the number of inspection visits carried out and the number and nature of the violations recorded.