Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Underground Work (Women) Convention, 1935 (No. 45) - Lesotho (Ratification: 1966)

1. The Committee notes the Government’s latest report, including information that no legislative changes had been adopted, which had had an impact on the application of the Convention which thus continues to be fully applied. The Committee notes with interest the appended report on an inspection conducted at Letseng Mining from 2 to 4 August 2005, which concluded that, at that mine, the management and the human resources, as well as safety and health departments, were fully aware of their obligations and duties and of workers’ rights, and that the mine has in place a comprehensive occupational safety and health management system for managing occupational risks involved, which included significant exposure to noise, low temperature and rock dust. The Committee requests the Government to continue to submit information, in accordance with Part V of the report form concerning the practical application of the Convention, including all available statistical data.

2. 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 that, with respect to underground work, the States parties to Convention No. 45 should be invited to contemplate ratifying the Safety and Health in Mines Convention, 1995 (No. 176), and possibly denouncing Convention No. 45, even though the 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).

3. In the light of the foregoing observations, and also considering that the present trend is no doubt to remove all gender-specific restrictions on underground work, the Committee invites the Government to give favourable consideration to the ratification of 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, and possibly also to the denunciation of Convention No. 45. 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 it informed of any decisions taken in this regard.