Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2023, published 112nd ILC session (2024)

Radiation Protection Convention, 1960 (No. 115) - New Caledonia

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Articles 1, 3(1) and (2), 6, 7, 8, and 14 of the Convention. Legislation. Appropriate measures to ensure the effective protection of workers against ionizing radiations and maximum permissible doses of ionizing radiations. Discontinuation of assignment to work involving exposure to ionizing radiations further to medical advice. The Committee takes due note that, in the period 2018–2021 there were no reports of occupational accidents with absence from work further to a worker’s sudden exposure to radiation. The Committee notes, however, that according to the Government, the regulations concerning radiation protection and, in particular, the maximum permissible doses, have not been updated for many years. The Government indicates that this is due to a lack of human resources and difficulties encountered in transposing the new regulations of metropolitan France into New Caledonian legislation. Nonetheless, the Committee notes with regret that the new regulation, which was due to be adopted in December 2016, has not yet been adopted. The Committee notes that the updating of Decision No. 547 of 25 January 1995, relating to the protection of workers against ionizing radiations, was scheduled for the first half of 2023 and that, ahead of this updating, the stakeholders (the enterprises and institutions involved) had decided that the above-mentioned decision would continue to be applied as it sets out the overriding principles of protection and management of workers’ exposure; but with regard to its implementation, they referred to the regulation of metropolitan France. In this regard, the Committee wishes to once again draw the Government’s attention to the following paragraphs of its 2015 general observation: paragraph 31 on a system of radiation protection; paragraphs 32 to 35 on the current recommendations for permissible dose limits; and paragraph 40 on discontinuation of assignment to work involving exposure to ionizing radiation pursuant to medical advice and alternative employment. The Committee also notes that 2023 was to be the year in which consideration was given to the establishment of a New Caledonian governmental department for radiation protection, responsible for liaising among all stakeholders. The Committee expects that the Government will spare no necessary efforts so that, in the light of the above-mentioned paragraphs of the 2015 general observation, a new regulation giving full effect to the Convention, particularly Article 3(1) and (2), and Articles 6, 7, 8 and 14, is adopted as soon as possible and in consultation with the employers’ and workers’ representatives concerned. In addition, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on any measures taken or envisaged with a view to the establishment of a New Caledonian governmental department for radiation protection.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.