Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

Medical Examination of Young Persons (Non-Industrial Occupations) Convention, 1946 (No. 78) - Spain (Ratification: 1971)

1. The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report. The Committee also notes that a draft Royal Decree is being prepared on the prevention of disease and the promotion of health education. The draft text sets out as minimum common objectives in the field of occupational health, the surveillance of the health of workers for the early detection of risk factors and deteriorations that may affect their personal health, surveillance of workers who are subject to special risks either due to their own physical condition (young persons under 18 years of age could be included here) and due to factors related to the working environment. The Committee trusts that the draft text will include the medical examination required by the Convention for young persons engaged on their own account in non-industrial occupations or employed in domestic service (Article 1, paragraphs 1 and 2, of the Convention), as well as measures of identification to ensure the application of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment to children or young persons engaged either on their own account or on account of their parents in itinerant trading or any other occupation carried on in the streets or in places to which the public have access (Article 7, paragraph 2(a)).

2. The Committee notes the comments made by the General Union of Workers and the Trade Union Confederation of Workers' Commissions (CC.OO) in which it is stated that the Convention lacks legal coverage in the country; that in practice a certificate is not required indicating that the young person has been passed by a qualified practitioner as being in a suitable condition to undertake the work to be performed; that the competent authority has not been designated for issuing the document proving the fitness of the young person for employment and setting out the conditions under which this employment shall be performed. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would make observations and give clarifications on these comments in its next report.

[The Government is asked to report in detail for the period ending 30 June 1991.]