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

Safety and Health in Construction Convention, 1988 (No. 167) - Dominican Republic (Ratification: 1998)

Legislation. The Committee notes with interest that the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations, issued by Decree No. 522-06 of 17 October 2006 and Resolution 4 of 2007, give effect to a good number of provisions of the Convention. Noting that the abovementioned legislation has introduced significant changes, the Committee requests the Government to provide a detailed report specifying the provisions of its legislation that give effect to each provision of the Convention, together with information on the application of the Convention in practice.

Application of the Convention in practice. Communication from trade unions. In its comments of 2010, the Committee noted communications from the Autonomous Confederation of Workers’ Unions (CASC), the National Confederation of Trade Union Unity (CNUS) and the National Confederation of Dominican Workers (CNTD), forwarded to the Government on 23 September 2010. It noted that the communications referred among other matters to the high incidence of accidents and diseases in the construction sector and alleged that the labour inspectorate lacks effectiveness in dealing with the frequent, systematic and serious violations of the applicable legislation. The Committee said that it would examine the communications in greater detail at the present session, together with any comments the Government saw fit to make. The abovementioned organizations submit that, generally speaking, it could be said that the legislation of the Dominican Republic is adequate to ensure the application of the Convention, and that it is backed up by penalties to deter any violations, since section 720 of the Labour Code treats occupational safety and health violations as very serious offences punishable by penal sanctions where the violation endangers or is liable to endanger the life, health or safety of the workers. The trade unions nonetheless report that despite the legal framework, breaches of the Convention are frequent, systematic and very serious. They further assert that the work of the inspectorate is ineffectual and indicate that the last Labour Statistics Bulletin, No. 9 of 2006, published by the Secretariat of State for Labour, records 5,326 occupational accidents, 399 of which occurred in construction. They also indicate that according to the same Bulletin, of the 777 contraventions reported by the labour inspectorate, only 27 concerned social security and occupational accidents. Furthermore, according to the country’s only occupational risk director, although there are an estimated 70,000 occupational accidents a year, only 5 per cent of them are reported. The trade unions also assert that according to the same director, “as in other countries, here too most cases occur in the construction sector, but with the difference that in the Dominican Republic the victims are Haitian and are not insured”. The organizations indicate that with the crisis in the sugar industry and the privatization of the sugar sector, tens of thousands of agricultural workers lost their jobs and moved to the east of the country, where the growing tourism sector needed workers for the construction of hotel complexes, and that according to the calculations of the Association of Housing Project Builders (ACOPROVI), 95 per cent of the workers employed in the tourism sector are Haitian. In Santo Domingo the percentage is lower, but Haitian workers are in the majority in the construction sector. They further assert that many enterprises apply no safety measures, such as nets for high-rise work, protective helmets, harnesses, boots and reflective jackets, and that the workers are careless about their own safety and that of their colleagues because they have received no instruction and, in some cases, because the companies provide no protective equipment. Furthermore, no one pays into the Construction Workers Pension Fund, so in the event of an accident workers resort to the public health system, where care is uneven and where they have virtually no access to medication. The organizations further assert that prevention programmes are rudimentary and, in practice, workers are unprotected and ill prepared to cope with such risks. In conclusion, the organizations state that, although the authorities are making efforts to comply with their obligations deriving from ratified ILO Conventions, more effective legislation, policies and actions are nonetheless needed in order to apply the Conventions in practice.

Comments of the Government. The Committee notes that although the Government makes no direct reference to the communication, it does provide some information on the application of the Convention in practice. It notes that, according to the Government, various meetings were held in 2010 with representatives of the main trade union federations in the construction sector and that the Ministry of Labour covered 70 per cent of the workplan that was developed. The report indicates that the Ministry of Labour has promoted Regulation No. 522, conducted training activities together with the unions, and supported the establishment of 16 joint committees, which are up and running. It also states that a platform is being developed for immediate registration/notification of occupational accidents to the Ministry of Labour, that there are to be improvements in the statistics on occupational accidents and that an agreement is under discussion on public works so that as soon as formalities start for land use and/or building permits, the Ministry of Labour is informed at once so that it can require submission of an occupational safety and health programme and the establishment of a joint committee. The Government indicates that the first forum on health and safety in the construction sector was organized with representatives of employers, workers and interested technical bodies; 2,000 copies of the rules on safety and health in construction were printed; a programme to promote compliance with construction safety prescriptions was organized in the north-Atlantic, north-east and south-central regions, with the assistance of 50 engineers; a workshop was organized for the association of master builders and another for engineers of the National Drinking Water and Sewerage Institute. The inspectorate monitored the safety and health of 10,026 workers.

The Committee notes that the communication from the workers refers to the application of Article 1 (scope); Article 9 (design and planning of construction projects); Part III (preventive and protective measures); Article 35 (labour inspection); Article 33 (information and training); and Article 34 (notification of accidents and diseases), which are analysed below.

Article 1 of the Convention. Scope. With reference to the communication from the workers, the Committee points out that the Convention applies to all construction activities, namely building, civil engineering, and erection and dismantling work, including any process, operation or transport on a construction site, from the preparation of the site to the completion of the project, without any distinction as to the employment relationship of the workers. The Committee requests the Government provide information on the manner in which it ensures that the Convention is applied to all construction activities and to all those who perform them, whether registered workers, unregistered workers or independent workers, together with specific information on construction workers who are not registered or who work in the informal economy.

Article 9. Design and planning of a construction project. Referring to the communication from the workers, the Committee asks the Government to provide information on how it ensures, in practice, that the persons responsible for designing and planning construction projects fulfil their duty to take account of the safety and health of construction workers, in conformity with national law and practice. Please also indicate whether the agreement which the Government referred to in its report, and under which the authorities issuing building permits must inform the Ministry of Labour of applications for permits, has been concluded.

Part III. Preventive and protective measures. Article 35. Labour inspection. In view of the problems in applying the provisions in practice referred to in the communication from the workers, please indicate the measures adopted to ensure effective application of the preventive and protective measures established in the Convention, including, but not limited to, the reinforcement of the labour inspectorate.

Article 33. Information and training. The Committee refers to the communication from the workers’ and the Government’s reply, and asks the Government to continue to provide information on the efforts made to give effect to this Article in practice.

Article 34. Notification of accidents and diseases. The Committee refers to the communication from the workers, and noting that a platform is being developed for immediate registration/notification to the Ministry of Labour of occupational accidents and for the improvement of occupational accident statistics, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on all progress made in this regard, including in respect to unregistered workers, whether Dominican or Haitian.

Part VII of the report form. The Committee notes that according to the communication from the workers’ federations, in 2010 the Government did not send them copies of its report. It also notes that the 2011 report makes no mention of whether it was sent to workers’ and employers’ organizations or whether these were consulted. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the representative organizations of employers and workers to which it sent copies of its report, in accordance with article 23(2) of the ILO Constitution.

Technical assistance. The Committee further notes that from 17 to 24 July 2011, an ILO Technical Assistance Mission was carried out under the Action Plan 2010–2016 in order to obtain broad ratification and effective application of the Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155), and its Protocol of 2002, and the Promotional Framework for Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 2006 (No. 187). The purpose of the Mission, which was requested by the Government, was to explain and facilitate ratification of these key occupational safety and health instruments and the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (No. 176). The Committee notes that as a result of the Mission, the Government expressed its intention to ratify Convention No. 187 in the short term and to continue working towards ratification of the other instruments. It also notes the Government’s statement that it was having difficulty in giving practical effect to the Occupational Safety and Health Regulations, issued by Decree No. 522-06 of 17 October 2006, and had requested further technical assistance by the Office so as to examine the matter in the context of three forthcoming tripartite workshops. The Committee observes that according to the present communication from the workers’ federations, the problems in giving practical effect to Ministerial Decision No. 4 of 2007 on construction are the same. The Committee accordingly urges the Government to extend its request for technical assistance to cover the difficulties encountered in giving practical effect to this Convention and to continue to pursue efforts with the social partners to improve effective application of the legislation giving effect to this Convention, and to provide information in this regard. The Committee hopes that the Government will be in a position to notify in the near future its ratification of Convention No. 187, in accordance with the statement it made to that effect to the Technical Assistance Mission, since this could make an effective contribution to improving the management of occupational safety and health.

[The Government is asked to reply in detail to the present comments in 2012.]