Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

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

Further to its observation, the Committee wishes to draw the Government’s attention to the following points.

1. Article 7 of the Convention. Young persons. With regard to the restrictions on the employment of young persons, the Committee notes section 15 of the Resolution referred to above which prohibits the engagement of young persons under 16 years of age in the manual transport of loads at workplaces. Furthermore, section 16 of the same Resolution provides that young persons of 18 years of age may not be engaged in the manual transport of loads whose weight involves physical effort, nor in work classified as exceeding their psychophysical motor strength. Nevertheless, this Resolution does not contain provisions specifying the types of work covered by section 16 and therefore the performance of which is prohibited for persons under 18 years of age. In these conditions, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the meaning of the expressions "manual transport of loads whose weight involves physical effort" and "work classified as exceeding their psycho-physical motor strength". It also requests the Government to indicate whether there is a list of types of work prohibited for young persons under 18 years of age. In this connection, it draws the Government’s attention to the ILO publication Maximum weight in lifting and carrying (Occupational Safety and Health Series, No. 59, Geneva, 1988), in which it is indicated that 15 kg is the limit recommended from an ergonomic point of view for the admissible weight of loads to be transported occasionally by women between 15 and 18 years of age and the weight for men in the same age group is 35 kg.

2. Part V of the report form. While noting 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 no longer than one year to modify operations and processes and adopt measures for the manual transport of loads, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the application of this Resolution in practice and consequently on the implementation of the provisions of the Convention. It reminds the Government that this information should include summaries of the reports of the General Directorate of Occupational Safety and Health which, under section 17 of the Resolution, is responsible for supervising and controlling compliance with the provisions of the Resolution, as well as statistics on the number and nature of contraventions reported and the action taken on them.