Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Nicaragua (Ratification: 1981)

Further to its observations, the Committee requests the Government to supply information on the following points.

1. Coverage of all employment or work. The Committee notes that under the Labour Code, children or adolescents who carry out productive activities or provide services for remuneration are considered as "workers" (section 130). It recalls that the provision of Article 2(1) of the Convention, which requires the fixing of the minimum age for admission to employment or work, covers not only wage employment but all employment or work, even if there is no employment relationship or no payment of remuneration. The Committee requests the Government to indicate measures taken or envisaged to give full effect to the Convention on this point.

2. Exceptions to the general minimum age. The Committee requests the Government to supply detailed information on the exceptions to the minimum age of 14 years made under section 131 of the Code, regulated by the General Labour Inspectorate, with particular reference to Article 7 of the Convention which allows exceptions for light work from 12 years, and Article 8 which allows exceptions for artistic performances under individual permits.

3. Dangerous work prohibited for young persons under 18 years of age. The Committee notes with interest that section 133 of the Code prohibits the employment of persons under 18 years of age in a wider range of activities than before, namely, unhealthy work and work with moral hazard, such as work in mines, underground, garbage collecting, night-time entertainment places, those which involve manipulation of psychotropic or toxic substances and objects, and night work in general. It requests the Government to supply further information as to the substances and objects the manipulation of which is prohibited under this section and any types of work other than those enumerated that are considered unhealthy or with moral hazard, and also on the consultations which have taken place on this subject with the employers' and workers' organizations in accordance with Article 3(2) of the Convention.

4. Register to be kept by the employer. The Committee recalls that the previous Labour Code explicitly provided for the obligation of the employer to keep a register of all employees under 18 years of age including their date of birth (section 15, item 15). It notes, however, that the corresponding provision on the employers' obligations of the new Code no longer contains this explicit provision on register but refers to the obligations which derive from the ILO Conventions ratified by Nicaragua. The Committee requests the Government to indicate measures taken to ensure that registers are kept and made available by the employer regarding employees younger than 18 years of age, including their dates of birth, in accordance with Article 9(3).

5. Application in practice. The Committee notes the Government's indications in its first report submitted in 1994 to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child that many children find their means of survival in "working" in the informal sector (CRC/C/3/Add.25, paragraph 61) and that the Ministry of Labour, whose budget is very modest, cannot really enforce the prohibitions in the Labour Code. It notes that the participation in the IPEC activities demonstrate the Government's willingness to take practical measures to eliminate child labour, and requests the Government to supply information on all measures taken or envisaged to ensure the application of the Convention in practice. It also requests the Government to include, for instance, statistical data and extracts of official reports, and results of labour inspection.