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

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 information contained in 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. In 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.

2. The Committee recalls that it has for over 30 years been requesting the Government to take the necessary measures to give effect to the provisions of Articles 2 to 4 of the Convention, that almost ten years have passed since the technical advisory mission of the ILO which took place in 1997 and that the draft Labour Code and Order which, according to the Government, contains provisions prohibiting the sale, hire, exhibition or transfer in any other matter of machinery of which the dangerous parts are without appropriate guards, accompanied by provisions setting forth penalties, has still not been adopted. Against this background, the Committee invites the Government to seek further technical assistance from the ILO to resolve any remaining obstacles giving effect to the Convention in the country and hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.

[The Government is asked to supply full particulars to the Conference at its 96th Session and to reply in detail to the present comments in 2007.]