Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1994, published 81st ILC session (1994)

Medical Examination of Young Persons (Non-Industrial Occupations) Convention, 1946 (No. 78) - Lebanon (Ratification: 1977)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in its report and requests the Government to supply in its next report additional information on certain questions raised in its previous comments.

1. Article 1 and Article 2, paragraph 1. In its previous comments the Committee requested the Government to indicate how it has given effect to the Convention with regard to certain categories of children and young persons who are excluded from the application of the Labour Code (domestic workers, salaried employees and wage-earners on probation or paid on a daily basis of government or municipal services).

According to the indications supplied by the Government, the Ministry of Labour provides, among the conditions for granting a work permit to foreign domestic workers, for the obligation to present a medical certificate, or in the case of Lebanese workers, the obligation to pass a medical examination; employees of public undertakings, before their assignment, must present a medical certificate pursuant to section 17 of Decree No. 6110 which refers "to the general provisions concerning medical care".

The Committee notes from these indications that there is an obligation provided for to present a certificate or to pass a medical examination, but that contrary to the requirements of the Convention, the conditions for making and issuing a certificate are not provided for, namely, that there must be a mexical examination for fitness for employment (Article 2.1), that it must be carried out by a qualified physician approved by the competent authority (Article 2.2), and that it must not involve the child or young person, or his parents, in any expense (Article 5). See also the comments made on the application of Convention No. 77 concerning the frequency of medical examinations.

2. Article 7. The Committee notes from the report of the Government that no measures of identification have been taken to supervise the application of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment to children and young persons either engaged on their own account or on account of their parents in itinerant trading or in any other occupation carried on in the streets or in places to which the public have access. The Government stated its intention to examine this question in the context of the preparation of decrees for the implementation of the Convention. The Committee hopes that the necessary measures will be taken then and that the Government will indicate the progress made in this respect.