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

Guarding of Machinery Convention, 1963 (No. 119) - Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ratification: 1967)

1. The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It must therefore repeat its previous observation which read as follows:

The Committee notes the Government’s report. It recalls with regret that for over 30 years it has been requesting the Government to take the necessary measures to give effect to the provisions of Articles 2 to 4 of the Convention.

It its last report, the Government indicates that Ministerial Order No. 0057/71 of 20 December 1971, issuing regulations respecting safety at the workplace, gives effect to the provisions of the Convention. However, this text, which was provided by the Government in 1973, has already been examined by the Committee. It concluded that this Ministerial Order only partially gave effect to the provisions of the Convention and, since 1974, it has been requesting the adoption of a text setting forth the prohibition, as required by the Convention, of the sale, hire, transfer in any other manner and exhibition of machinery of which the dangerous parts are without appropriate guards.

The Committee notes that the Government refers in its report to a new draft Labour Code containing provisions prohibiting the sale, hire, exhibition or transfer in any other manner of machinery of which the dangerous parts are without appropriate guards, accompanied by provisions setting forth penalties. It also notes that the procedures for dealing with violations of this prohibition are to be determined by order. In its previous reports, the Government has referred on several occasions to a draft order respecting the guarding of machinery and to the revision of the Labour Code, in the context of which provisions designed to give effect to the above Articles of the Convention were to be adopted. The Committee understands that the new draft Labour Code is the result of the revision which was previously envisaged and confirmed by Government representatives during the ILO’s technical advisory mission in 1997. In view of the fact that the Committee has for nearly 30 years been pointing out the need to take measures, either by legislative or any other appropriate means, to give effect to the above provisions of the Convention, it trusts that the Government will in the near future adopt the text of the above Labour Code and of the Order and that it will provide copies thereof with its next report.

2. The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.