Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

Medical Examination of Young Persons (Non-Industrial Occupations) Convention, 1946 (No. 78) - Haiti (Ratification: 1957)

1. The Committee notes the comments made by the Trade Union Confederation of Haiti (CSH). The CSH states that, according to the information gathered by its members, the only children who worked in agriculture are those helping their parents in family farms. However, the legislation does not provide for medical examinations for these young workers. Furthermore, young persons working in the informal sector and in domestic work are not covered by the legislation.

2. With regard to domestic work, the Committee notes that work by children and young persons in domestic service is governed by sections 341 to 356 of the Labour Code, as amended by the Decree of 24 February 1984. The Committee notes that, by virtue of section 343 of the Labour Code, before taking a child into service, all persons must obtain a work permit issued by the directorate of the Social Welfare and Research Institute or the IBESR, after controlling the conditions set out in section 342 of the Labour Code, which determine the conditions to be fulfilled by the employer at the individual level. Section 344 of the Labour Code lays down the information which must be contained in this permit. It also provides that the permit has to be renewed each year until the young person employed reaches the age of 15 years and that such renewal must be accompanied by a physical, moral and intellectual examination of the minor employed. This examination is carried out by the competent services of the IBESR. The Committee notes that children and young persons employed in domestic service are not subject to a medical examination for fitness for employment prior to their admission to such employment, as required by section 336 of the Labour Code, as amended, for children and young persons under 18 years of age engaged in industrial, agricultural or commercial enterprises. As a result, the above provisions respecting work by children in domestic service do not give effect to the obligation set out in Article 2 of the Convention. The Committee therefore requests the Government to take the necessary measures in this respect to ensure that children and young persons under 18 years of age working in the domestic sector are also subject to a medical examination for fitness for employment before their admission to employment.

3. Article 7, paragraph 2(a). The Committee notes that the provisions of the Labour Code respecting work by minors (sections 332 and the following) do not contain any specific provision requiring the identification of the children and 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. The Committee requests the Government, if there are no provisions in laws or regulations requiring the identification of children and young persons engaged in the above types of work, to take the necessary measures to give effect to this provision of the Convention.

4. Finally, the Committee requests the Government to provide information enabling it to assess the manner in which the Convention is applied in the country including, for instance, extracts from the reports of the inspection services and, where the statistics compiled make this possible, information on the number and nature of the contraventions reported, etc., in accordance with Part V of the report form for the Convention.