Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 82nd ILC session (1995)

Nursing Personnel Convention, 1977 (No. 149) - Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (Ratification: 1983)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government during a direct contacts mission organized in September 1994.

Article 2, paragraph 2(b), of the Convention. The Committee notes Decree No. 193 of 27 May 1994 to supplement Decree No. 3245 of 26 January 1994 and to establish a new classification for the majority of nursing personnel. It hopes, as the Government has proposed, that the wage scales to be established by the joint committee provided for in clause 33 of the collective agreement between the Venezuelan Social Insurance Institute (IVSS) and the National Federation of Health Workers (FETRA SALUD), will be communicated shortly.

Article 4. The Committee notes that the Bill on nursing has not yet been published. It asks the Government to provide a copy of it as soon as it has been adopted. Please also provide information on any developments with regard to university qualification requirements for nursing personnel.

Article 5, paragraph 1. The Committee notes that there have been no developments in nursing service planning by the Health Steering Committee (Comisión Rectora de Salud). It hopes that the Government will shortly be able to report on progress in this respect.

Article 5, paragraph 3. The Committee notes that the disputes with nursing personnel were settled by means of conciliation with intervention by the Directorate of Health Sector Disputes and the Office of the Public Prosecutor. Please state whether the parties concerned were consulted on the matter, in both the public and the private sectors.

Article 7. The Committee asks the Government to indicate the measures taken or contemplated to improve existing legislation on occupational health and safety by adapting it to the special nature of nursing work and of the environment in which it is carried out. In addition, with reference to its general observation of 1990, which it repeated in 1994, the Committee asks the Government to indicate the measures taken or contemplated, in consultation with the employers' and workers' organizations concerned, to take into account the particular risk of accidental exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among nursing personnel: for example, conditions of work, confidentiality of test results, recognition that the cause of infection was occupational, etc.

Point V of the report form. The Committee requests the Government to continue to provide the statistics and other information required under this point.