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Underground Work (Women) Convention, 1935 (No. 45) - Viet Nam (RATIFICATION: 1994)

The Committee notes the statistical information provided by the Government in its report according to which no female workers are engaged in underground work in coal mines as evidenced by a recent survey covering 104 enterprises and 39,000 workers (out of a total workforce of 89,000 workers in the coal mining industry), including 10,000 female workers accounting for 25 per cent of the workers surveyed. The Government adds that no woman has ever been employed on underground work in coal mines and that in any event women are not provided training for this kind of work.

The Committee takes this opportunity to recall that, based on the conclusions and proposals of the Working Party on Policy regarding the Revision of Standards, the ILO Governing Body has decided to invite the States parties to Convention No. 45 to contemplate ratifying the recent Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (No. 176), and possibly denouncing Convention No. 45 although this latter instrument has not been formally revised (see GB.283/LILS/WP/PRS/1/2, paragraph 13). Contrary to the old approach based on the outright prohibition of underground work for all female workers, modern standards focus on risk assessment and risk management and provide for sufficient preventive and protective measures for mineworkers, irrespective of gender, whether employed in surface or underground sites. As the Committee has noted in its 2001 General Survey on night work of women in industry in relation to Conventions Nos. 4, 41 and 89, "the question of devising measures that aim at protecting women generally because of their gender (as distinct from those aimed at protecting women’s reproductive and infant nursing roles) has always been and continues to be controversial" (paragraph 186).

In the light of the foregoing observations, and also considering that the general trend worldwide is to provide protection for women in a fashion that does not infringe their rights to equality of opportunity and treatment, the Committee invites the Government to consider the possibility of denouncing Convention No. 45 and to contemplate ratifying the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (No. 176), which shifts the emphasis from a specific category of workers to the safety and health protection of all mineworkers. In this respect, the Committee recalls that according to established practice the Convention will be next open to denunciation during a one-year period from 30 May 2007 to 30 May 2008. The Committee requests the Government to keep the Office informed of any decision taken in this regard.