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Shipowners' Liability (Sick and Injured Seamen) Convention, 1936 (No. 55) - Peru (RATIFICATION: 1962)

The Committee notes the additional information provided by the Government concerning the comments made in May 1999 and January and March 2000 by the Trade Union of Fishing Boat Owner-Masters of Puerto Supe and Associates concerning the operational difficulties of the system of supplementary occupational risk insurance (SCTR) established by the Social Security Modernization Act No. 26790 in the area of health, which had been noted by the Committee in its observation in 2000.

With regard to the application in practice of the SCTR, and particularly the alleged cases of failure to pay the benefit for temporary incapacity and the survivors’ pension and funeral expenses, the Government once again provides information on the legal provisions which set out these benefits. With regard to the provision of the benefit for temporary incapacity, the Government indicates that the payment of this benefit to fishermen is envisaged in section 35 of Supreme Decree No. 03 98 SA, approving the Technical Standards for Supplementary Occupational Risk Insurance. In this respect, the Government indicates that the provision of the benefit for temporary incapacity is the responsibility of the Fishermen’s Social Benefits and Social Security Fund (CBSSP), and not of the employer. The Government also supplies a report on enterprises affiliated to the SCTR submitted by the Insurance Standardization Office (ONP). On the subject of the survivors’ pension and funeral expenses, it indicates that provision of the pension for total permanent invalidity and the survivors’ pension can be required of the ONP, provided that the employer is included in the register of enterprises carrying out the activities envisaged in Annex 5 to the Regulations issued under Act No. 26790. In this connection, sanctions are envisaged in the event of failure by the employer to register, in which event workers can take legal action under section 88 of the Regulations issued under Act No. 26790.

The Committee notes this information. It hopes that the Government will take adequate measures to prevent seafarers who are victims of accidents or who contract a disease being left without protection and will strengthen its inspection system for this purpose to ensure that employers comply with the obligation to include their workers in the register of enterprises carrying out high-risk activities and take out the SCTR for this purpose. In this regard, the Committee recalls that, under the terms of Article 4, paragraph 3, and Article 5, paragraph 3, of the Convention, a shipowner may cease to be liable for the expense of medical care and for the payment of wages in whole or in part due to the seafarer in the event of injury which results in incapacity for work provided that the injured seafarer is entitled to benefits under a compulsory sickness insurance scheme, a compulsory accident insurance scheme or a scheme of workmen’s compensation for accidents that is in force for seafarers in the territory in which the vessel is registered. The Committee would therefore be grateful if the Government would provide information in its next report on the application in practice of the supplementary occupational risks insurance scheme (SCTR) as it relates to seafarers. It also requests the Government to provide information (statistics, reports of inspection bodies and, if any, administrative sanctions imposed on shipowners, etc.) concerning the measures which have been taken or are envisaged to ensure that in practice, on the one hand, shipowners subscribe to this insurance scheme and, on the other hand, where they do not subscribe to this scheme, seafarers benefit as a minimum from the benefits guaranteed by this Convention in the event of sickness or injury. The Committee also requests the Government to indicate whether the fishing enterprises CHAPSA and ATLANTIDA, which are referred to by the Trade Union of Fishing Boat Owner-Masters of Puerto Supe, have also subscribed to the supplementary occupational risks insurance scheme and, if they have not, to provide information on the cases mentioned by the trade union.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 2002.]