Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Guarding of Machinery Convention, 1963 (No. 119) - Niger (Ratification: 1964)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government's report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the following matters which were raised in its previous direct request:

The Committee has noted from the report of the Government that amendments had been introduced to the draft Decree establishing the rules on safety and health to be observed in the use of machinery, taking account of its earlier comments. It has examined the new version of the draft Decree, whose text has been communicated by the Government, and would like to point out the following:

1. Article 4 of the Convention. The Committee observed that the draft Decree contained no provisions giving effect to this Article of the Convention. It would therefore be desirable to include a provision to this effect in the draft Decree.

2. Article 14. The Committee observed that the scope of this Article covers the whole of Part III of the Convention and that the obligation to observe the provisions of this Part fall not only on the employer in the strict sense but also, where appropriate under national laws or regulations, on a prescribed agent of the employer. The Committee noted that section 16 of the draft Decree provided, in this connection, that certain obligations fell not only on the head of the establishment but also on his agent. It therefore hopes that the Government will be able to amend the draft in question so that all the obligations of the employer specified in Part III of the Convention fall also, where appropriate, on his agent and that this agent will also be made liable to the penalties provided for in section 22 of the draft.

The Committee hopes that the Government will take these remarks into account and that the draft thus amended will be adopted in the very near future.

The Committee also asks the Government, once again, to state whether the employers' and workers' organisations concerned were consulted during the preparation of this draft, in accordance with Article 16.