Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1998, published 87th ILC session (1999)

Occupational Cancer Convention, 1974 (No. 139) - Argentina (Ratification: 1978)

The Committee takes note of the information provided by the Government, in particular in reply to its general observation. It also notes the information provided by the Government concerning the promulgation of the provision DNHST No. 01/95.

Article 3 of the Convention. The Committee notes with interest the provision DNHST No. 01/95. Pursuant to its section 7, enterprises are required to keep the medical records of workers, who might have been exposed during their working lives, for a period of 40 years after these workers have left the company.

Article 5. The Committee notes that the provision DNHST No. 01/95 does not contain any provisions regarding medical checks. However, items 8, 9 and 10 of Annex II to provision 33/90 relate to medical examinations for the early detection of cancer, to specific examinations of the working environment and to the specific biological examinations which employers must provide to workers in the undertakings concerned. The Committee recalls that under this Article of the Convention, measures must be taken to ensure that workers, both during and after the period of their employment, are provided with the medical or biological examinations or other tests or investigations needed to evaluate their level of exposure and monitor their state of health with regard to the occupational hazards, in response to the common situation in which cancer is diagnosed only after the worker concerned has left the employment in which he or she suffered exposure.

Resolution 64/91, transmitted by the Government, provides that negotiating committees must be convened with a view to applying the occupational safety and health regulations and the technical standards drawn up by the National Occupational Health and Safety Directorate.

The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide information on the results of the work done by the above-mentioned committees, if they have been convened, and in particular, information on measures taken to ensure that workers are provided after their period of employment with the examinations needed to assess their state of health.