Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 (No. 115) - Belize (Ratification: 1983)

Article 3, paragraph 1, and Article 6, paragraph 2, of the Convention. Maximum permissible doses of ionizing radiation. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s response indicating that, on 13 March 2009, the Labour Advisory Board was re-activated and that its main duty is the revision of national labour legislation. The Committee notes that the Ministry is currently in the process of identifying a consultant that will work with the Labour Advisory Board to conduct the revision of the legislation, and that comments made by the Committee will be submitted to the Board. The Committee hopes that in the course of the ongoing revision of national labour legislation due account will be taken to the exposure limits adopted by the International Commission on Radiological Protection in its 1990 Recommendations, to which the Committee referred in its 1992 general observation under the Convention, in order to ensure the effective protection of workers exposed to ionizing radiation in the course of their work.

Article 14. Alternative employment or other measures offered for maintaining income where continued assignment to work involving exposure is medically inadvisable. The Committee notes the Government’s response indicating that there is no provision in the Labour Act for the transfer of pregnant women from work involving exposure to ionizing radiation to another job. The Committee notes, however, the Government’s statement that that the National Occupational Safety and Health Policy, adopted by the Cabinet on 9 November 2004, can provide a suitable framework for drafting legislation that could make provision for such transfer and that legislation is drafted in consultation with the Labour Advisory Board. The Committee hopes that in the course of the ongoing revision of the national labour legislation, due account will be taken to the need to ensure that suitable alternative employment opportunities, not involving exposure to ionizing radiations, be provided for workers having accumulated an effective dose beyond which detriment to their health considered unacceptable is to arise, as well as for pregnant women, who otherwise may be faced with the dilemma that protecting their health means losing their employment.

Occupational exposure during an emergency. The Committee notes that there is currently no provision in the Labour Act laying out the circumstances in which exceptional exposure is authorized. With reference to paragraphs 16 to 27 and 35(c) of its 1992 general observation under the Convention, and paragraphs V.27 and V.30 of the International Basic Safety Standards issued in 1994, the Committee requests the Government, in the course of the ongoing revision of the national labour legislation, to take due account of the need to determine circumstances in which exceptional exposure is authorized, and to make protection as effective as possible against accidents and during emergency operations, in particular with regard to the design and protective features of the workplace and the equipment, and the development of emergency intervention techniques, the use of which in emergency situations would enable the exposure of individuals to ionizing radiations to be avoided.