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Law Approving Convention No. 176 Of The International Labour Organisation Concerning Safety And Health In Mines, Adopted In Geneva On 22 June 1995 (1)

Original Language Title: Loi portant assentiment à la Convention n° 176 de l'Organisation internationale du Travail concernant la sécurité et la santé dans les mines, adoptée à Genève le 22 juin 1995 (1)

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1 SEPTEMBER 2012. - An Act to Accredit International Labour Organization Convention No. 176 concerning Mine Safety and Health, adopted in Geneva on 22 June 1995 (1)



ALBERT II, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The Chambers adopted and We sanction the following:
Article 1. This Act regulates a matter referred to in Article 77 of the Constitution.
Art. 2. The International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No. 176 concerning Mine Safety and Health, adopted in Geneva on 22 June 1995, will take out its full and full effect.
Promulgation of this law, let us order that it be clothed with the seal of the State and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Brussels on 1 September 2012.
ALBERT
By the King:
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs,
D. REYNDERS
The Minister of Employment,
Ms. M. DE CONINCK
Seen and sealed the state seal:
The Minister of Justice,
Ms. A. TURTELBOOM
____
Note
(1) Session 2011-2012.
Senate:
Documents.
Bill tabled on 26/04/2012, no. 5-1589/2
Report on behalf of the Commission 5-1589/1
Annales parliamentarians.
Discussion, meeting of 28/06/2012.
Vote, meeting of 28/06/2012.
Chamber:
Documents.
Project transmitted by the Senate, No. 53-2309/1.
Text adopted in plenary and submitted to Royal Assent 53-2309/2.
Annales parliamentarians.
Discussion, session of 19/07/2012.
Vote, meeting of 19/07/2012.

CONVENTION No. 176
Mine Safety and Health
The General Conference of the International Labour Organization, convened in Geneva by the Board of Directors of the International Labour Office, meeting on 6 June 1995 at its eighty-second session;
Noting relevant international labour conventions and recommendations, in particular the Convention on the Abolition of Forced Labour, 1957; the Radiation Protection Convention and Recommendation, 1960; Convention and Recommendation on Machine Protection, 1963; agreement and recommendation for benefits in the event of occupational accidents and occupational diseases, 1964; Minimum Age Convention and Recommendation (underground work), 1965; the convention on the medical examination of adolescents (underground work), 1965; Convention and recommendation on the workplace (air pollution, noise and vibration), 1977; Convention and Recommendation on Safety and Health of Workers, 1981; the Labour Health Services Convention and Recommendation, 1985; Convention and Recommendation on Asbestos, 1986; Convention and Recommendation on Safety and Health in Construction, 1988; Convention and Recommendation on Chemicals, 1990, and Convention and Recommendation on the Prevention of Major Industrial Accidents, 1993;
Considering the need and right of workers to be effectively informed, trained and consulted, as well as to participate in the preparation and implementation of safety and health measures regarding the hazards and risks to which they are exposed in the mining industry;
Acknowledging that it is desirable to prevent any fatal, injury or injury to the health of workers or the population, as well as environmental damage, which could result from mining;
Taking into account the need for cooperation between the International Labour Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other relevant institutions, and noting the relevant instruments, compendiums of practical guidelines, codes and directives issued by these organizations;
Having decided to adopt various proposals on safety and health in mines, which constitutes the fourth agenda item of the session;
After deciding that these proposals will take the form of an international convention, this twenty-second day of June mil nine hundred and ninety-five, the following convention, to be known as the Mine Safety and Health Convention, 1995.
PART I. DEFINITIONS
Article 1
1. For the purposes of this Agreement, the term "mine" includes:
(a) any open or underground site where the following activities take place:
(i) exploration of minerals, with the exception of oil and gas, which involves mechanical alteration of the land;
(ii) mineral extraction, except for oil and gas;
(iii) the preparation of extracted materials, including crushing, grinding, concentration or washing;
(b) all machinery, equipment, accessories, facilities, buildings and civil engineering structures used in relation to the activities referred to in paragraph (a) above.
2. For the purposes of this Agreement, the term "employer" means any natural or legal person who employs one or more workers in a mine, as well as, if the context implies, the operator, principal contractor, contractor or subcontractor.
PART II. PAPLICATION CHAMP AND MODALITES
Article 2
1. This Agreement applies to all mines.
2. After consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and interested workers, the competent authority of a Member ratifying the convention,
(a) may exclude certain categories of mines from the application of the Convention or some of its provisions if, as a whole, the protection granted under national legislation and practice is not less than that which would result from the full application of the provisions of the Convention;
(b) shall, in the event that certain categories of mines are excluded under paragraph (a) above, establish plans to gradually cover all mines.
3. Any Member who ratifies this Convention and takes precedence over the possibility offered in paragraph 2 (a) above shall indicate, in the reports on the application of the Convention submitted under Article 22 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization, any particular category of mines that has been excluded and the reasons for this exclusion.
Article 3
The Member shall, taking into account national conditions and practice, and after consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and interested workers, formulate and implement a coherent policy on safety and health in mines and review it periodically, in particular with regard to measures giving effect to the provisions of the Convention.
Article 4
1. Measures to ensure the application of the Convention must be prescribed by national legislation.
2. Where applicable, this legislation must be supplemented by:
(a) technical standards, guidelines, compendiums of practical guidelines; or
(b) other means of implementation in accordance with national practice, to be identified by the competent authority.
Article 5
1. The national legislation referred to in Article 4, paragraph 1, shall designate the authority to monitor and regulate the various aspects of safety and health in mines.
2. This legislation should include:
(a) Mine safety and health monitoring;
(b) the inspection of mines by inspectors designated for this purpose by the competent authority;
(c) notification and investigation procedures in cases of fatal or serious accidents, as well as mining disasters and hazardous incidents as defined by the said legislation;
(d) the establishment and publication of statistics on accidents, occupational diseases and hazardous incidents as defined by the said legislation;
(e) the power of the competent authority to suspend or restrict, for safety and health reasons, mining activities until the conditions underlying the suspension or restriction are corrected;
(f) the establishment of effective procedures to give effect to the rights of workers and their representatives to be consulted on matters and to participate in measures relating to safety and health in the workplace.
3. This national legislation will require that the manufacture, storage, transportation and use of explosives and detonators at the mine be carried out by competent and authorized persons or under their direct supervision.
4. This legislation must establish:
(a) the requirements for mine rescue, first aid and appropriate medical services;
(b) the requirement to provide adequate individual life-saving appliances to workers in underground coal mines and, where appropriate, in other underground mines and to maintain such devices;
(c) protection measures to be applied to abandoned mining work with a view to eliminating or minimizing safety and health risks;
(d) the requirements to ensure, in satisfactory safety conditions, the storage, transport and disposal of hazardous substances used in mining and mine residues;
(e) where appropriate, the requirement to provide and maintain in a satisfactory state of hygiene a sufficient number of sanitary equipment and facilities to wash, change and feed.
5. This national legislation must provide that the employer responsible for the mine must ensure the development of appropriate plans for mining work prior to the commencement of operations, as well as any significant changes, and the periodic update of these plans that must be made available on the mine site.
PART III. PREVENTION MEASURES
AND PROTECTION IN MINE
A. RESPONSIBILITY OF EMPLOYERS
Article 6
By taking the preventive and protective measures provided for in this part of the agreement, the employer shall assess the risks and treat them according to the following priority:
(a) eliminate these risks;
(b) control them at the source;
(c) Minimize them by various means including the development of safe working methods;
(d) to the extent that these risks remain, provide for the use of personal protective equipment, in view of what is reasonable, practicable and feasible, as well as what is considered to be good practice and in accordance with the required diligence.
Article 7
The employer must be required to take all necessary measures to eliminate or minimize the safety and health risks of mines under its authority, in particular:
(a) ensure that the mine is designed, constructed and equipped with electrical, mechanical and other equipment, including a communication system, so that the necessary conditions for the safety of its operation and a safe working environment are ensured;
(b) ensure that the mine is put into service, operated, maintained and decommissioned in such a way that workers can perform the tasks assigned to them safely for their safety and health or for other persons;
(c) take steps to maintain the stability of the land in areas where people have access to the opportunity of their work;
(d) whenever feasible, provide, from any underground work site, two exits each leading to a separate path leading to the day;
(e) ensure the periodic inspection, assessment and inspection of the workplace to identify the various hazards to which workers may be exposed and to assess the extent of this exposure;
(f) ensure adequate ventilation of all underground work to which access is authorized;
(g) for areas at special risk, develop and implement an operating plan and procedures to ensure the safety of the work system and the protection of workers;
(h) take appropriate measures and precautions to prevent, detect and combat the outbreak and spread of fires and explosions;
(i) Ensure that activities are stopped and workers evacuated to a safe place, where workers ' safety and health are seriously threatened.
Article 8
For each mine, the employer will have to prepare a specific emergency action plan to deal with reasonably predictable industrial and natural disasters.
Article 9
When workers are exposed to physical, chemical or biological hazards, the employer will be required to:
(a) keep workers informed, in an intelligible manner, of the dangers of their work, of the risks to their health and of the applicable prevention and protection measures;
(b) take appropriate measures to eliminate or minimize the risks resulting from this exposure;
(c) where adequate protection against the risks of accidents or health impairment, including exposure to harmful conditions, cannot be provided by other means, provide and maintain, at no cost to workers, appropriate clothing to the needs, as well as equipment and other protective devices defined by national legislation; and
(d) provide workers who have suffered from injury or illness in the workplace with the first care, adequate means of transport from the workplace and access to appropriate medical services.
Article 10
The employer must ensure that:
(a) workers receive, at no cost to them, adequate training and recycling, as well as intelligible instructions on safety and health, as well as the tasks assigned to them;
(b) in accordance with national legislation, adequate monitoring and control shall be exercised on each team to ensure that, in the event of work post-mine operations are conducted in a secure manner;
(c) a system shall be established so that, at any time, the names of all persons on the merits and their likely location can be accurately known;
(d) all hazardous accidents and incidents, as defined by national legislation, are investigated and appropriate measures taken to remedy them; and
(e) a report on hazardous accidents and incidents shall be prepared in accordance with national legislation for the competent authority.
Article 11
The employer must ensure that regular medical supervision of workers exposed to occupational hazards specific to mining activities is carried out according to the general principles of occupational medicine and in accordance with national legislation.
Article 12
When two or more employers engage in activities in the same mine, the employer responsible for the mine will have to coordinate the execution of all measures relating to the safety and health of workers and be held as the primary responsibility for the safety of operations without the individual employers being exempted from their own responsibility for the implementation of all measures relating to the safety and health of their workers.
B. RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS
OF WORKERS AND DELEGUES
Article 13
1. The national legislation referred to in Article 4 must recognize workers the right:
(a) report accidents, hazardous incidents and hazards to the employer and the competent authority;
(b) to request and obtain that inspections and investigations be conducted by the employer and the competent authority where there is a cause for safety and health concern; and
(c) to know and be informed of hazards at the workplace that may affect their safety or health;
(d) to obtain information in possession of the employer or competent authority relating to their safety or health;
(e) to depart from any place in the mine where there are reasonable grounds to believe that there is a situation of serious danger to their safety or health; and
(f) to collectively choose safety and health delegates.
2. The delegates of workers to safety and health referred to in paragraph 1 (f) above shall be recognized, in accordance with national legislation, the right:
(a) to represent workers in all matters relating to safety and health in the workplace, including in the case of exercising the rights referred to in paragraph 1 above;
(b) of:
(i) participate in inspections and investigations conducted by the employer and the competent authority at the workplace;
(ii) conduct security and health monitoring and investigations;
(c) use independent advisers and experts;
(d) hold timely consultations with the employer on safety and health issues, including related policies and procedures;
(e) hold consultations with the competent authority; and
(f) to receive notification of accidents and dangerous incidents involving the sector for which they were selected.
3. The procedures for the exercise of the rights referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 above shall be specified:
(a) National legislation and
(b) through consultations between employers and workers and their representatives.
4. National legislation should ensure that the rights referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 above can be exercised without discrimination or reprisal.
Article 14
National legislation must provide that, following their training, workers are subject to the obligation:
(a) comply with prescribed safety and health measures;
(b) take reasonable care of their own safety and health, as well as those of other persons who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work, including by correctly using the means, protective clothing and equipment available to them and ensuring that they are cared for;
(c) to report immediately to their direct superior any situation that may in their opinion pose a risk to their safety or health or to those of other persons and to which they are not themselves able to cope properly;
(d) cooperate with the employer in order to ensure that the obligations and responsibilities under the agreement are met.
COOPERATION
Article 15
Measures should be taken, in accordance with national legislation, to encourage cooperation between employers and workers and their representatives with a view to promoting safety and health in mines.
PART IV. IMPLEMENTATION
Article 16
The Member shall:
(a) adopt all necessary measures, including appropriate sanctions and corrective measures, to ensure the effective implementation of the provisions of the Convention; and
(b) establish appropriate inspection services to monitor the implementation of the measures to be taken in accordance with the Convention, and provide such services with the necessary resources to carry out their tasks.
PART V. FINAL PROVISIONS
Article 17
The formal ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office and recorded by him.
Article 18
1. This Convention shall be binding only on Members of the International Labour Organization whose ratification has been registered by the Director General of the International Labour Office.
2. It will enter into force twelve months after the ratifications of two Members have been registered by the Director-General.
3. Subsequently, this agreement will come into force for each Member twelve months after the date of its ratification.
Article 19
1. Any Member who has ratified this Convention may denounce it at the expiry of a period of ten years after the date of the initial entry into force of the Convention, by an act communicated to the Director General of the International Labour Office and registered to it. The denunciation will only take effect one year after being registered.
2. Any Member that has ratified this Convention that, within one year after the expiration of the ten-year period referred to in the preceding paragraph, shall not make use of the denunciation faculty provided for in this Article shall be bound for a further ten-year period and, thereafter, may denounce this Convention at the expiry of each ten-year period under the conditions set out in this Article.
Rule 20
1. The Director General of the International Labour Office will notify all Members of the International Labour Organization of the registration of all ratifications and denunciations that will be communicated to it by the Members of the Organization.
2. In notifying the Members of the Organization the registration of the second ratification that has been communicated to it, the Director-General will draw the attention of the Members of the Organization to the date on which this Agreement will enter into force.
Article 21
The Director General of the International Labour Office will provide the Secretary-General of the United Nations, for registration, in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations, with full information on all ratifications and denunciation that he has registered in accordance with the preceding articles.
Article 22
Each time it deems necessary, the Board of Directors of the International Labour Office will present to the General Conference a report on the application of this Convention and will consider whether it is necessary to include in the agenda of the Conference the question of its total or partial revision.
Article 23
1. In the event that the Conference adopts a new Convention for the full or partial revision of this Convention, and unless the new Convention otherwise provides:
(a) the ratification by a Member of the new revision convention would entail full right, notwithstanding Article 19 above, immediate denunciation of this Convention, subject to the entry into force of the new revision convention;
(b) from the date of the entry into force of the new revision convention, this Convention would cease to be open to the ratification of Members.
2. This Convention would in any case remain in force in its form and content for those Members who have ratified it and who would not ratify the Review Convention.
Article 24
The English and French versions of the text of this Convention are equally authentic.

Mine Safety and Health Convention (No. 176)
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