Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Workmen's Compensation (Occupational Diseases) Convention (Revised), 1934 (No. 42) - Poland (Ratification: 1948)

The report indicates that provisions governing the issue of occupational diseases in Poland were amended in 2009 pursuant to the judgment of the Constitutional Tribunal of 19 June 2008, which ruled that the previously binding provisions, i.e. Council of Ministers Ordinance No. 1115 of 30 July 2002 concerning the list of occupational diseases, detailed principles of conduct in cases of suspicion, recognition and diagnosis of occupational diseases and relevant entities in such cases, do not comply with article 92(1) of the Constitution. As a result of the amendment, an updated list of occupational diseases has been included in Council of Ministers Ordinance No. 105 of 3 June 2009 concerning occupational diseases, which entered into force on 3 July 2009. The Polish legal system on occupational diseases is now based upon a closed catalogue of occupational diseases since, as indicated by the Supreme Court in a judgment of 5 April 2005, when “determining occupational diseases, only the influence of substances listed in binding executive laws issued on behalf of the provisions of the Labour Code may be taken into consideration; the list of occupational diseases may not be extended by interference from other binding provisions”.

The Committee would like the Government to clarify, in the light of these decisions of the highest judicial authorities, the legal status of Convention No. 42 in national legislation, and to demonstrate, by means of a detailed comparative analysis, that the new closed national list of occupational diseases covers all pathological manifestations produced by the substances set forth in the Schedule included in Article 2 of the Convention.