Solicitud directa (CEACR) - Adopción: 2016, Publicación: 106ª reunión CIT (2017)

Convenio sobre la indemnización por accidentes del trabajo (agricultura), 1921 (núm. 12) - Eswatini (Ratificación : 1978)

Application of the Convention in practice. The Committee notes that, while the national legislation on workers’ compensation equally applies to industrial and agricultural employees as required by the Convention, it observes that, pursuant to a report of the International Trade Union Confederation of October 2016 on “Workers’ rights and land confiscation in Swaziland’s sugar sector”, there are reported cases in which the legislation is not applied in practice, for example, workers not being provided equipment or required to purchase them at their own expense.

In order to enable it to understand better to what extent Convention No. 12 is applied in practice, the Committee asks the Government to review in its next report the procedures by which the industrial accidents are notified and registered by the competent authorities and to provide detailed information and data on:

• - the number of industrial accidents registered in the agricultural sector;
• - the actions taken by the labour inspection services to identify and investigate cases of industrial accidents in agriculture; and
• - the amount of accident compensation benefits paid to agricultural workers.

Conclusions and recommendations of the standards review mechanism. The Committee notes that, at its 328th Session in October 2016, the Governing Body of the ILO adopted the conclusions and recommendations formulated by the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group (SRM TWG), recalling that Convention No. 12, to which Swaziland is party is outdated and charging the Office with follow-up work aimed at encouraging States party only to this Convention to ratify the Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 [Schedule I amended in 1980] (No. 121), and/or the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102), and accept, inter alia, its Part VI, as these represent the most up-to-date instruments in this subject area. The Committee reminds the Government of the availability of ILO technical assistance in this regard.