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

Maximum Weight Convention, 1967 (No. 127) - Portugal (Ratification: 1985)

Article 7. Restriction on the assignment of women and young workers under the age of 18 years to manual transport. In its previous direct request the Committee noted that Act No. 35/ 2004 was not in conformity with this Article of the Convention and asked the Government to indicate measures taken to give effect to the obligation to restrict the employment of adult women and young workers in regard to the transport of loads other than light loads and to establish that the weight of each load shall be substantially less for women than that permitted for male workers. The Committee notes that, according to the Government’s most recent report, the Act referred to would have been repealed by section 12 of Act No. 7/2009 revising the Labour Code. The Committee notes, however, that the Government does not indicate the provisions nor the measures taken to give effect to Article 7 as regards women and young workers. With reference to its direct requests in 2002 and 2006, the Committee requests the Government to take the measures required to give effect to the obligation to restrict the employment of adult women and young workers in regard to the transport of loads other than light loads and to establish that the weight of each load shall be substantially less for women than that permitted for male workers.

Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government, in particular regarding the activities carried out in the context of the European Week on Manual Transport of Loads in 2007, as well as the observations by the General Union of Workers (CUT) that this campaign continued in 2008 but that its national impact was not yet known. The Committee notes that, according to statistical data provided by the Government, 76, 414 and 197 breaches of provisions related to the Convention were registered for the three years 2006–08 respectively. The Committee requests the Government to provide further information on the impact of the campaign referred to above, on the measures taken to address the apparent increase in breaches, as well as any other relevant information on how the Convention has been applied in practice, including trends regarding registered breaches.