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

Nursing Personnel Convention, 1977 (No. 149) - Malawi (Ratification: 1986)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in reply to its previous direct request.

Article 2, paragraph 2(b), and Article 5, paragraph 2, of the Convention. The Committee notes the Government's information concerning determination of the employment and working conditions of nursing personnel. It asks the Government to provide a copy of the general terms and conditions of employment applying to members of the Christian Hospitals' Association of Malawi (CHAM). In addition, the Committee notes that the Government has recently published a policy statement for employees in both the private and public sectors to freely organize in trade unions and engage in collective bargaining. It asks the Government to provide a copy of the above statement and to provide information on any developments in this area that affect nursing personnel.

Article 5, paragraph 3. The Committee notes with interest the Government's information concerning the practical application of the procedure for the settlement of disputes arising out of the determination of working conditions, and particularly the manner in which the guarantees of independence and impartiality of the procedure, provided for in the Convention, are preserved.

Article 6. Please provide a copy of the administrative arrangements concerning (a) hours of work and (b) weekly rest, applicable to public sector nursing personnel. Please also provide a copy of the general provisions applying to members of CHAM, in respect of: (a) hours of work; (b) weekly rest; (c) paid annual leave; (d) maternity leave; (e) sick leave; and (f) social security.

Article 7 and point V of the report form. The Government's report - particularly the information on occupational safety and health and the statistics on the numbers of nursing personnel - reveals that the practical application of the Convention is difficult owing to budgetary constraints. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on developments in the situation (statistics, etc.), and in particular to indicate the measures taken or contemplated, in consultation with the organizations of employers and nursing personnel concerned, to improve the practical application of the provisions of the Convention in the area of occupational safety and health. 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 organizations of employers and nursing personnel concerned, to take account of the particular risk of accidental exposure to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) among nursing personnel: for example, by the arrangement of conditions of work, confidentiality of test results, recognition that the cause of infection was occupational, etc.