Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Guarding of Machinery Convention, 1963 (No. 119) - Ghana (Ratification: 1965)

The Committee notes the Government’s brief report indicating that no legislative amendments to ensure compliance with the Convention have yet been taken. It also notes that the Government requests technical assistance from the ILO in reviewing its laws governing the sectors of concern, namely agriculture, forestry, road and rail transport and shipping. The Committee would like to take this opportunity to inform the Government that, in March 2010, the Governing Body adopted a plan of action to achieve widespread ratification and effective implementation of the key instruments in the area of occupational safety and health, the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155), its 2002 Protocol and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187) (document GB.307/10/2 (Rev.)). The Committee invites the Government to consider broadening the scope of technical assistance to be requested to include revision of the national law and practice in the country also in the broader context of the key Conventions covered by the Plan of Action. The Committee invites the Government to provide information on any needs it may have in this respect and in order to ensure the effective application of the provisions of the Convention. In the meantime, the Committee is required to repeat its previous observation regarding the scope of application of the Convention which read as follows:

Articles 1 and 17 of the Convention. Scope of application. The Committee reminds the Government that, for more than 30 years, the Committee has drawn the Government’s attention to the need to extend the legislation giving effect to the Conventon to agriculture, forestry, road and rail transport and shipping. In its 1986 report, the Government indicated that it was due to submit the Committee’s observations to the tripartite National Advisory Committee on Labour so that it could examine them and take the necessary steps to give full effect to the provisions of the Convention. The Committee trusts that, in the context of the revision of the labour legislation launched with the adoption of the Labour Code in 2003, the Government will focus on the need to revise the legislation in the field of occupational safety and health, especially in order to give effect to the Convention. The Committee urges the Government to take the necessary steps in the very near future to ensure the guarding of machinery in all sectors of economic activity, particularly agriculture, forestry, road and rail transport and shipping.

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

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 2012.]