Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017)

Medical Examination of Young Persons (Non-Industrial Occupations) Convention, 1946 (No. 78) - El Salvador (Ratification: 1995)

Article 4(1) and (2) of the Convention. Medical examination and re examinations for fitness for employment until the age of 21 years in occupations which involve high health risks, and specification of the occupations concerned. The Committee requests the Government to refer to its comments on the Medical Examination of Young Persons (Industry) Convention, 1946 (No. 77).

Article 7(2)(a). Ensuring the application of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment to children and young persons engaged either on their own account or on account of their parents. Further to its previous comments, the Committee noted that the preliminary draft regulations had been replaced by new regulations on the authorization of the employment of young workers (Executive Decree No. 31 of 6 April 2011), adopted from the implementation of the Act for the comprehensive protection of children and young persons (LEPINA). It noted that, although section 2(d) of the new regulations provides that children aged 14 years or over who wish to obtain authorization to work from the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare shall submit a medical certificate of fitness for employment, there are no provisions which determine the existing measures of identification for ensuring the application of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment to children and young persons engaged either on their own account or on account of their parents in itinerant trading, or in any other occupation carried on in the streets or in places to which the public have access.

The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that there are administrative agencies responsible for protecting the rights of children and young persons, such as the protection boards to guarantee and defend the rights of children and young persons. However, the Committee recalls that, under Article 7(2)(a) of the Convention, national laws or regulations shall determine the measures of identification to be adopted for ensuring the application of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment to children and young persons engaged either on their own account or on account of their parents. The Committee therefore once again requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that measures of identification are adopted in national laws or regulations with a view to ensuring the application of the system of medical examination for fitness for employment to children and young persons engaged either on their own account or on account of their parents in itinerant trading, or in any other occupation carried on in the streets or in places to which the public have access.