Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) - Belgium (Ratification: 1988)

Article 3(3) of the Convention. Admission to hazardous work from the age of 16 years. In its previous comments, the Committee noted that section 8 of the Royal Order of 3 May 1999 on the protection of young persons at work (Royal Order of 1999) prohibits the employment of young persons under 18 years of age in the hazardous types of work listed under section 8(2) of the Order, namely work involving exposure to agents that are toxic, carcinogenic, cause hereditary genetic alterations, have harmful effects on the foetus during pregnancy, or cause any other chronic harmful effect on human beings. However, section 10 of the Order provides that “young persons at work”, defined as any worker aged between 15 and 18 years who is not subject to full-time compulsory schooling, apprentices, trainees and students (section 2), may perform these types of work under the safety conditions set out in this section.

The Committee noted previously that a new Code on well-being at work was in the process of being adopted and that the new Code would consolidate the royal orders respecting the well-being of workers, including the Royal Order of 1999, which was to be amended to raise the minimum age for young persons to work to 16 years in order to ensure that young persons could perform hazardous types of work only from the age of 16 years. However, the Committee noted that the adoption of the new Code on well-being at work had once again been postponed. The Government indicated that, with a view to meeting the requirements of the Convention, the Directorate-General for the Humanization of Work had prepared a draft royal order amending the Royal Order of 1999, separately from the finalization of the Code on well-being at work, but which would be incorporated into the Code subsequently, so that the Order could be signed and published more rapidly. In particular, the amendment of section 10 of the Order was envisaged with a view to raising the minimum age for young persons to be engaged in hazardous types of work to 16 years.

The Committee notes with satisfaction the Government’s indication in its report that the Royal Order of 1999 has been amended by the Royal Order of 31 May 2016. In its new wording, section 10(1) of the Royal Order of 1999 provides that young persons at work of 16 years of age or over may perform hazardous types of work under the safety conditions set out in the section, in accordance with Article 3(3) of the Convention.