Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) - Croatia (Ratification: 1991)

Further to its observation, the Committee raises the following points.

Articles 4, 5, 11, subsection (f), and 15(2) of the Convention. Central bodies. The Committee notes with interest that as part of the implementation of the National Programme on Occupational Safety and Health (2009–13) the Croatian Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Insurance and the Croatian Institute for the Protection of Health and Safety and Work were founded and began operations on 1 January 2009 with the basic task of improving health protection in the workplace and implementing preventive occupational medicine activities at the level of the enterprise. The Committee notes that the latter institution is responsible for confirming diagnoses of occupational diseases, that it keeps the register of occupational diseases, and that electronic information retrieval systems are under development. The Committee also notes that it is the former institution that is responsible for receiving notifications from employers on accidents and diseases. The Committee notes that these developments seem to pave the way for a possible ratification of the 2002 Protocol on Recording and Notification to the Convention. The Committee invites the Government to provide further information on the activities of these institutions and their contribution to the implementation of the Convention in the country. It also requests the Government to provide information on any decisions taken with regard to the 2002 Protocol to the Convention.

Article 9. Inspection. The Committee notes with interest the information regarding the continued attention given to enhancing the inspection services in the country by revising relevant legislation, by training and hiring additional labour inspectors (including an additional 15 labour inspectors in 2010) and by upgrading the equipment available to the labour inspectorates. The Committee invites the Government to continue to keep it informed on further developments in this respect and as well as the results of these increased efforts.

Article 15(1). Cooperation between inspection services. The Committee notes the information that labour inspectors and mining inspectors share the same premises, in order to enhance the cooperation between them. The Committee also notes the reference made by the Government to co-operation with inspection services of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Physical Planning and Construction, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Regional Development, Forestry and Water Management, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development, the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and inspection services within the State Inspectorate responsible for the area of environmental protection, which includes co-ordinated inspectional supervisions of plants for which an environmental impact assessment must be made, plants in which dangerous substances are used which could cause major accidents, and, if necessary, other legal or natural persons whose operations can affect the environment and human health. While welcoming this information the Committee requests the Government to provide further details on how this cooperation is carried out in practice.

Part V of the report form. Application of the Convention in practice. The Committee requests the Government to give a general appreciation of the manner in which the Convention is applied in the country, and to provide, where such statistics exist, information on the number of workers covered by the legislation, the number and nature of the contraventions reported, and the number, nature and cause of accidents and occupational diseases reported.