Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) - Brazil (Ratification: 1992)

Occupational safety and health (OSH) conditions in the extraction, forestry, silviculture and coal-based industries in the State of Mina Gerais. The Committee notes a communication from the Federation of Workers in the Extraction Industries in the State of Minas Gerais (FTIEMG), received on 2 January 2013 and forwarded to the Government on 20 March 2013. It also notes that the Government has still not provided its comments on this communication. The FTIEMG refers to the poor safety and health conditions of workers providing services in, or in relation with, the firm Celulosa Nipo-Brasilera SA (the company), which operates in the State of Minas Gerais. The union also refers to the action that it has taken to combat precarious working conditions in reforestation, silviculture and vegetation extraction industries, which particularly affect the OSH of workers in the company’s outsourced firms. The FTIEMG indicates that illegal outsourcing is linked to situations of serious risks for the safety and health of the workers and that the precarious OSH conditions, especially in the outsourced enterprise working in the reforestation sector, led to a rise in occupational accidents in 2012. The union adds that it is taking public action against the firm together with the Public Ministry of Labour, the Regional Labour Directorate, the Human Rights Commission of the Legislative Assembly of Minas Gerais and the Regional Labour Prosecutor’s Office and that, faced with the likelihood of a ruling against the firm, 2,000 dismissals were carried out before December 2012, and it was expected that by September 2013 this would rise to 4,500 on the alleged grounds of a modernization plan. It also indicates that the first workers dismissed were those affected by occupational diseases and accidents. It states that, in this context, threats were issued to the secretariat of the FTIEMG which, on the date the communication was sent, was under police protection. The Committee understands that this communication focuses on the deteriorating safety and health conditions in the outsourced firms and that, faced with efforts to improve OSH conditions in the firms in question, mass dismissals took place, with no dialogue with either the union or the authorities. The Committee also notes that the 16 annexes sent by the union reveal that the labour administration and labour courts took numerous measures in support of the workers. The Committee will examine the communication in greater detail, together with any reply the Government wishes to make in this regard. The Committee invites the Government to provide comments in relation to the communication from the FTIEMG on the abovementioned situation of the workers and on OSH conditions in the extraction, forestry silviculture and coal-based industries in the State of Minas Gerais. The Committee also invites the Government to reply to its comments of 2011.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 2014.]