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

Occupational Safety and Health (Dock Work) Convention, 1979 (No. 152) - Denmark (Ratification: 1989)

The Committee takes note of the detailed information provided by the Government in its reports furnished in 1993, 1996 and 2001. It requests the Government to supply clarifications and supplementary information with respect to the following points.

1. Article 1 of the Convention. Scope of application. The Committee notes that the provisions of the Danish Working Environment Act (DWEA) apply to the work of loading and unloading of ships. Please clarify whether the DWEA and the Executive Orders issued under the Act would also cover all work incidental to the loading and unloading of ships.

2. Article 2. Exemptions and tripartite consultations. Please clarify whether any exemptions, exceptions and significant variations have been made under Article 2, paragraphs 1 and 2, and, if so, please indicate the reasons therefor, the measures taken to ensure that safe working conditions are maintained when the exemptions or exceptions are applicable and the manner in which the employers’ and workers’ organizations concerned were consulted regarding these decisions.

3. Article 4, paragraph 3. Practical implementation through technical standards or codes of practice. The Committee notes that the implementation of the requirements prescribed in Article 4, paragraph 1, is assisted by certain recognized codes of practice referred to in the technical regulation on lifting appliances and loose gear on ships and also by guides concerning dock work. In this context, the Committee wishes to also draw the attention of the Government to the ILO Code of practice on safety and health in ports, Geneva, 2005 (online at http://www.ilo.org/public/english/protection/safework/cops/english/).

4. Article 10, paragraph 1. Stacking of goods and materials. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure that open storage areas for the stacking of goods and materials are suitable for the purpose and properly maintained.

5. Article 11, paragraphs 1 and 2. Passageways of adequate width. The Committee notes that the Government has referred to AT Instruction No. 2.2.0.1. Please indicate whether this instruction prescribes certain minimum width of passageways for vehicles and cargo-handling appliances and pedestrians, and furnish a copy of this instruction.

6. Article 12. Means for fighting fire. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure that suitable and adequate means for fighting fire are provided in ships.

7. Article 13, paragraph 1. Guarding of dangerous parts of machinery. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure that dangerous parts of machinery on board ships are effectively guarded, unless they are in such a position or of such a construction as to be as safe as they would be if effectively guarded.

8. Article 13, paragraph 3. Stopping of machinery during cleaning, maintenance and repair. Please indicate the measures taken to give effect to the requirement to stop machinery before any cleaning, maintenance or repair work that would expose any person to danger has to be undertaken on hoisting equipment and other permanently installed equipment on ships and of ensuring that the machinery cannot be restarted until such work has been completed.

9. Article 16, paragraph 1. Transport of workers to or from a ship. Please indicate the measures taken, when workers have to be transported to or from a ship to another place by water, to ensure their safe embarking, transport and disembarking and the conditions to be complied with by vessels used for the purpose.

10. Article 17, paragraph 1. Access to a ship’s hold or deck. Please clarify whether regulation 5(4) of Order No. 181 on the loading and unloading of ships requires access to a ship’s hold or cargo deck to be by means of a fixed ladder. Also, please indicate the manner in which the competent authority determines the acceptability of the mobile ladders referred to in regulation 5(4) of Order No. 181 concerning the loading and unloading of ships.

11. Article 18, paragraph 2. Hatch covers handled with the aid of a lifting appliance. Please indicate the measures taken to give effect to the requirement that hatch covers handled with the aid of a lifting appliance are fitted with readily accessible and suitable attachments for securing the slings or other lifting gear.

12. Article 18, paragraph 3. Marking of hatch covers and beams. Please indicate the measures taken to give effect to the requirement that where hatch covers and beams are not interchangeable, they be kept plainly marked to indicate the hatch to which they belong and their position therein.

13. Article 19, paragraph 2. Requirement of coamings of adequate strength. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure that a hatchway not fitted with a coaming of adequate strength is closed or its guard replaced when the hatchway is no longer in use except during short interruptions of work.

14. Article 20, paragraph 1. Safety of workers in holds and decks of vessels. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure the safety of workers required to be in the hold or the cargo deck of a ship when power vehicles operate in that hold or loading or unloading operations are taking place with the aid of power-operated appliances.

15. Article 20, paragraph 2. Removal of hatch covers and beams that are not adequately secured. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure that before loading or unloading takes place, any hatch cover or beam that is not adequately secured against displacement shall be removed.

16. Article 20, paragraph 4. Safe loading or unloading from holds, ’tween decks, bins or hoppers. Please indicate the arrangements made for the safety of persons and their safe means of escape when dry bulk cargo is being loaded or unloaded in any hold or ’tween deck or when a worker is required to work in a bin or hopper on board ship.

17. Article 22, paragraph 3. Retesting of lifting appliances. The Committee notes that the Government has indicated that shore-based hoists and lifting equipment shall be inspected by a person with special expertise when it is 10 years old. However, as the provision requires the retesting and not just inspection of lifting appliances at such times as prescribed by the competent authority, please indicate the frequency at which shore-based lifting appliances have to be retested.

18. Article 24, paragraph 1. Slings. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure that expendable or disposable slings shall not be reused. Also, please indicate the measures taken to ensure that in the case of pre-slung cargoes, the slings shall be inspected as frequently as is reasonably practicable.

19. Article 25, paragraphs 2 and 3. Registers and certificates. The Committee notes that, in respect of the testing, examination and inspection of lifting appliances and loose gear on ships, only registers which are in content and form in accordance with the register for the certification of completed periodic examination and inspection of lifting appliances and loose gear recommended by the ILO may be used and that certificate forms based on the "model forms of register of ship’s lifting appliances and certificates as required by ILO Convention No. 152" have been issued. As these requirements apply only in respect of lifting appliances and loose gear on ships, please clarify whether there is a similar requirement in respect of lifting appliances and items of loose gear on shore.

20. Article 26, paragraphs 1(b) and 2. Certification and safe use of lifting appliances, other cargo-handling appliances and items of loose gear. Please indicate the measures that have been taken to ensure the mutual recognition of arrangements made by other Members with regard to testing, examination, inspection and certification of lifting appliances and items of loose gear forming part of a ship’s equipment and for conditioning the use of lifting appliances, items of loose gear or other cargo-handling appliances, both on and off shore, on measures taken to establish that they can be used safely.

21. Article 29. Safe use of pallets and similar devices. Please indicate the measures taken in practice to ensure that pallets and similar devices for containing or supporting loads are free from visible defects liable to affect their safe use.

22. Article 30. Raising and lowering of loads. Please indicate the measures taken in practice to ensure that loads shall not be raised or lowered unless slung or otherwise attached to the lifting appliance in a safe manner.

23. Article 31, paragraph 2. Safe lashing or unlashing of containers. Please indicate the means provided for ensuring the safety of workers lashing or unlashing containers.

24. Article 32, paragraph 3. Safe handling of dangerous substances. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure that dock work, other than that necessary to eliminate danger, shall be stopped in the area concerned when receptacles or containers of dangerous substances are broken and the workers removed to a safe place until the danger has been eliminated.

25. Article 33. Protection against exposure to excessive noise. The Committee notes that Rule 14 of Executive Order No. 559 on the performance of work requires any unnecessary exposure to noise to be avoided and any limits fixed in this regard to be complied with. Please indicate the limits fixed for protecting workers from the harmful effects of excessive noise at the workplace.

26. Article 35. Removal of injured persons. Please indicate the measures taken to give effect to the requirement of the provision that adequate facilities be readily available for the removal of injured persons in so far as is reasonably practicable without further endangering them.

27. Article 36, paragraphs 1(a) to (d) and 3. Medical examinations. Please indicate the risks for which there should be an initial or periodical medical examinations, the maximum intervals at which periodical medical examinations are to be carried out, the range of special investigations deemed necessary in the case of dock workers and the occupational health services provided in pursuance of Article 36, paragraph 1(d), of the Convention. Also, please indicate the measures taken to give effect to the requirement that the records of the medical examinations and investigations be kept confidential.

28. Article 38, paragraph 2. Minimum age for handling lifting and other cargo-handling appliances. The Committee notes that Regulation 19.2 of the technical regulation on lifting appliances and loose gear on ships provides that only persons aged 18 years or more may be employed as winch operators, crane drivers and signallers. It is however not clear whether lifting appliances and other cargo-handling appliances that are not on board ships may also be operated only by persons aged 18 years or more possessing the necessary aptitude and experience. Therefore, please clarify the measures taken to ensure that all lifting appliances and cargo-handling appliances, including those on shore, may be operated only by persons aged 18 years or more and who possess the necessary aptitude and experience or persons under training who are properly supervised.

29. Article 41(a). Assigned duties in respect of occupational safety and health. Please indicate the measures taken to give effect to the requirement to specify the duties in respect of occupational safety and health of persons and bodies concerned with dock work.

30. Part III of the report form. Please indicate the authority or authorities to which the application of the laws concerning dock work is entrusted.

31. Part IV of the report form. Please indicate whether any courts of law or tribunals have given decisions involving questions of principle relating to the application of the Convention and, if so, to supply the text of these decisions.

32. Part V of the report form. Please give a general appreciation of the manner in which the Convention is applied in Denmark and provide information on the number of workers covered by laws giving effect to the Convention, disaggregated by sex if possible, the number and nature of the contraventions reported, the resulting action taken and the number of occupational accidents and diseases reported, and attach relevant extracts from the reports of the concerned inspection services.