Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

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

Article 2, paragraph 1, and Article 4 of the Convention. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes the information that sections 1 and 33 of Ministerial Order No. 114 of 1996 provide that the sale, exposition, transport, hire, use of machinery of which the dangerous parts are not well-guarded shall be prohibited. It also notes that sections 40-46 (and particularly the first paragraph of section 40) of the Labour Code in the Private Sector No. 38 of 1964 provide that the employer shall provide suitable means of prevention for protection of labourers, during work, against accidents resulting from the use of mechanical equipment and machinery, transmission gears, hoisting and conveying machines, etc. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that section 2 of Ministerial Order No. 114 of 1996 relating to the conditions and requirements to be met at workplaces for the protection of workers against occupational hazards covers both new and second-hand machinery irrespective of the sector of economic activity. While section 33 of Ministerial Order No. 114, as described in the Government’s report, may meet a good part of the requirements of these Articles of the Convention, the Committee recalls that it must also require the vendor and the person hiring out this machinery to ensure compliance with the prohibition.

The Committee notes that the various legislative texts applying the provisions of the Convention that were indicated as enclosed with the Government’s most recent report have not been received. Please provide copies of these texts, including a copy of Ministerial Order No. 114 of 1996, as the previous text communicated to the Office bearing the same references only dealt with the establishment of a committee to study labour standards and Conventions.