Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Underground Work (Women) Convention, 1935 (No. 45) - Gibraltar

1. The Committee notes the Government’s report which indicates that despite the recent amendment of the title of implementing legislation, the Employment Ordinance continues to prohibit women or female young persons from being employed in underground work in any mine, quarry or other work for the extraction of minerals from under the surface of the earth. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide in its next report specific information as to whether any underground mines are currently in operation in Gibraltar, the number of workers employed in mining activities, as well as any other particulars bearing on the practical application of the Convention in the self-governing territory.

2. The Committee takes this opportunity to recall that, based on the conclusions and proposals of the Working Party on Policy regarding the Revision of Standards, the ILO Governing Body has decided that with respect to underground work the States parties to Convention No. 45 should be invited to contemplate ratifying the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (No. 176), and possibly denouncing Convention No. 45 even though the latter instrument has not been formally revised (see GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2, paragraph 13). Contrary to the old approach based on the outright prohibition of underground work for all female workers, modern standards focus on risk assessment and risk management and provide for sufficient preventive and protective measures for mineworkers, irrespective of gender, whether employed in surface or underground sites. As the Committee has noted in its 2001 General Survey on night work of women in industry in relation to Conventions Nos. 4, 41 and 89, "the question of devising measures that aim at protecting women generally because of their gender (as distinct from those aimed at protecting women’s reproductive and infant nursing roles) has always been and continues to be controversial" (paragraph 186).

3. In the light of the foregoing observations, and also considering that the present trend is no doubt to remove all gender-specific restrictions on underground work, the Committee invites the Government to give favourable consideration to the ratification of the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (No. 176), which shifts the emphasis from a specific category of workers to the safety and health protection of all mineworkers, and possibly envisage also the termination of the acceptance of the obligations of Convention No. 45 on behalf of Gibraltar in accordance with the terms of that Convention. In this respect, the Committee recalls that, according to established practice, the Convention will be next open to denunciation during a one-year period from 30 May 2007 to 30 May 2008. The Committee requests the Government to keep it informed of any decision taken in this regard.