Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2009, published 99th ILC session (2010)

Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 (No. 115) - Portugal (Ratification: 1994)

Further to its observation the Committee requests the Government to provide further information on the following issues.

Article 1 of the Convention. Medical examinations. Type and frequency of medical examinations. The Committee notes that section 13 of legislative Decree No. 222/2008, to which reference was made in its observation, regulates this question. Noting that paragraph 1 of this section of the Decree not only regulates employers’ responsibilities in this respect but also provides for the possibility to attribute responsibility to certain specialized institutions to monitor the health of workers exposed to radiation based on criteria to be established by decree, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on all relevant laws and regulations in this respect as well as their application in practice, and to indicate the frequency of medical examinations.

Article 8. Workers not directly engaged in radiation work but who remain in or pass where they may be exposed to ionizing radiation. The Committee requests the Government to provide information regarding the dose limits determined in application of Article 6 for the workers covered by this Convention.

Article 14. Alternative employment or other measures offered for maintaining income where continued assignment to work involving exposure is medically inadvisable. Recalling paragraphs 28 to 34 and 35(d) of its 1992 general observation on the Convention, which recommends establishing the possibility of alternative employment or social security measures for all workers who have accumulated an effective dose beyond which detriment considered unacceptable may occur, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the measures taken to allow workers to maintain their income through alternative employment or social security measures, when exposure, for medical reasons, is inadvisable.

Part V of the report form. Application in practice. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the manner in which the Convention is applied in the country, including information on the number of workers covered as well as on the activities of the labour inspectorate in this sector.