Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 (No. 115) - Greece (Ratification: 1982)

1. The Committee notes the information contained in the Government’s report, in particular Ministerial Decision No. 1014/94 (Official Journal No. 216) of March 2001, which lays down basic standards for the protection of the health of the population and workers against the dangers arising from ionizing radiation. It also notes that Ministerial Decision No. 14632 of 1989 has been repealed.

2. Article 13(d) of the Convention. Occupational exposure during or after an emergency. The Committee notes in particular that section 1.2.4 of Ministerial Decision No. 1014/94 of 6 March 2001 on protection against radiation refers to “limited dose levels” during the emergency intervention of voluntary workers exposed to radiation and not to the dose limits set by the same Decision. The Committee also notes that the Decision does not permit the dose limits to be exceeded, but, on the other hand, permits the “limited dose levels” to be exceeded. In this regard, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the issues addressed in paragraph 35(c)(iii) of the conclusions of its 1992 general observation on Convention No. 115, according to which the strict definition of circumstances in which exceptional exposure of workers, exceeding the normally tolerated dose limit, is to be allowed for “immediate and urgent remedial work”; that work must be strictly limited in scope and duration to what is required to meet an acute danger to life and health; exceptional exposure of workers is neither justified for the purpose of rescuing “items of high material value”, nor, more generally, because alternative techniques of intervention, which do not involve such exposure of workers, “would involve an excessive expense”. The Committee asks the Government to explain the difference between “the dose limits” and the “limited dose levels” mentioned in its report and to indicate the conditions which determine whether the situation is an emergency and to specify its duration.

3. Article 14. Offer of alternative employment. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that no measures exist for offering alternative suitable employment to workers who are required to stop carrying out radiation work for health reasons. In this regard, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the explanations given in paragraph 32 of the 1992 general observation, according to which “every effort must be made to provide the workers concerned with suitable alternative employment or to maintain their income through social security measures or otherwise where continued assignment to work involving exposure is found to be medically inadvisable”. The Committee asks the Government to provide, in its next report, detailed information on the application of this Article in practice, as well as information on the way in which the general observation of 1992 relating to this Convention is taken into account.