Appl. 22.73

73. Medical Examination (Seafarers), 1946

 

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE

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REPORT FORM

 

FOR THE

 

MEDICAL EXAMINATION (SEAFARERS) CONVENTION, 1946 (No. 73)

 

The present report form is for the use of countries which have ratified the Convention. It has been approved by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, in accordance with article 22 of the ILO Constitution, which reads as follows: "Each of the Members agrees to make an annual report to the International Labour Office on the measures which it has taken to give effect to the provisions of Conventions to which it is a party. These reports shall be made in such form and shall contain such particulars as the Governing Body may request."

 

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Practical guidance for drawing up reports

 

First reports

 

If this is your Government's first report following the entry into force of the Convention in your country, full information should be given on each of the provisions of the Convention and on each of the questions set out in the report form.

 

Subsequent reports

 

In subsequent reports, information need normally be given only:

 

(a)     on any new legislative or other measures affecting the application of the Convention;

(b)     in reply to the questions in the report form on the practical application of the Convention (for example, statistics, results of inspections, judicial or administrative decisions) and on the communication of copies of the report to the representative organizations of employers and workers and on any observations received from these organizations;

(c)     in reply to comments by supervisory bodies: the report must contain replies to any comments regarding the application of the Convention in your country which may have been made by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations or by the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards.

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Article 22 of the Constitution of the ILO

 

Report for the period ..... to ..... made by the Government of .....

 

on the

 

MEDICAL EXAMINATION (SEAFARERS) CONVENTION, 1946 (No. 73)

 

(ratification registered on.....)

 

I.       Please give a list of the legislation and administrative regulations, etc., which apply the provisions of the Convention. Where this has not already been done, please forward copies of these texts to the International Labour Office.

 

Please give any available information concerning the extent to which these laws and regulations have been enacted or modified to permit, or as a result of, ratification.

 

II.      Please indicate in detail for each of the following Articles of the Convention the provisions of the above-mentioned legislation and administrative regulations, etc., or other measures, which give effect to each Article.

 

If in your country ratification of the Convention gives the force of national law to its terms, please indicate by virtue of what constitutional provisions the ratification has had this effect. Please also specify what action has been taken to make effective those provisions of the Convention which require a national authority to take certain specific steps for its implementation, such as measures to define the exact scope of the Convention and the extent to which advantage may be taken of permissive exceptions provided for in it, measures to draw the attention of the parties concerned to its provisions, and arrangements for adequate inspection and penalties.

 

If the Committee of Experts or the Conference Committee on the Application of Standards has requested additional information or has made an observation on the measures adopted to apply the Convention, please supply the information asked for or indicate the action taken by your Government to settle the points in question.

 

Article 1

 

1. This Convention applies to every sea-going vessel, whether publicly or privately owned, which is engaged in the transport of cargo or passengers for the purpose of trade and is registered in a territory for which this Convention is in force.

 

2. National laws or regulations shall determine when vessels are to be regarded as sea-going.

 

3. This Convention does not apply to-

 

(a)     vessels of less than 200 tons gross register tonnage;

(b)     wooden vessels of primitive build such as dhows and junks;

(c)     fishing vessels;

(d)     estuarial craft.

 

Article 2

 

Without prejudice to the steps which should be taken to ensure that the persons mentioned below are in good health and not likely to endanger the health of other persons on board, this Convention applies to every person who is engaged in any capacity on board a vessel except-

 

(a)     a pilot (not a member of the crew);

(b)     persons employed on board by an employer other than the shipowner, except radio officers or operators in the service of a wireless telegraphy company;

(c)     travelling dockers (longshoremen) not members of the crew;

(d)     persons employed in ports who are not ordinarily employed at sea.

 

Article 3

 

1. No person to whom this Convention applies shall be engaged for employment in a vessel to which this Convention applies unless he produces a certificate attesting to his fitness for the work for which he is to be employed at sea signed by a medical practitioner or, in the case of a certificate solely concerning his sight, by a person authorised by the competent authority to issue such a certificate.

 

2. Provided that, for a period of two years from the date of the entry into force of this Convention for the territory concerned, a person may be so engaged if he produces evidence that he has been employed in a sea-going vessel to which this Convention applies for a substantial period during the previous two years.

 

Article 4

 

1. The competent authority shall, after consultation with the shipowners' and seafarers' organisations concerned, prescribe the nature of the medical examination to be made and the particulars to be included in the medical certificate.

 

2. When prescribing the nature of the examination, due regard shall be had to the age of the person to be examined and the nature of the duties to be performed.

 

3. In particular, the medical certificate shall attest-

 

(a)     that the hearing and sight of the person and, in the case of a person to be employed in the deck department (except for certain specialist personnel, whose fitness for the work which they are to perform is not liable to be affected by defective colour vision), his colour vision, are all satisfactory; and

(b)     that he is not suffering from any disease likely to be aggravated by, or to render him unfit for, service at sea or likely to endanger the health of other persons on board.

 

Please indicate the competent authority, the arrangements for consultation with the shipowners' and seafarers' organisations concerned, the nature of the medical examination and the particulars to be included in the medical certificate.

 

Article 5

 

1. The medical certificate shall remain in force for a period not exceeding two years from the date on which it was granted.

 

2. In so far as a medical certificate relates to colour vision it shall remain in force for a period not exceeding six years from the date on which it was granted.

 

3. If the period of validity of a certificate expires in the course of a voyage the certificate shall continue in force until the end of that voyage.

 

Please indicate the period of validity of medical and colour vision certificates.

 

Article 6

 

1. In urgent cases the competent authority may allow a person to be employed for a single voyage without having satisfied the requirements of the preceding Articles.

 

2. In such cases the terms and conditions of employment shall be the same as those of seafarers in the same category holding a medical certificate.

 

3. Employment in virtue of this Article shall not be deemed on any subsequent occasion to be previous employment for the purpose of Article 3.

 

Please indicate the authority competent to grant the permission referred to in paragraph 1 and state how often recourse has been had to this Article.

 

Article 7

 

The competent authority may provide for the acceptance in substitution for a medical certificate of evidence in a prescribed form that the required certificate has been given.

 

If advantage has been taken of the provision contained in this Article please indicate the form of evidence prescribed in substitution for a medical certificate.

 

Article 8

 

Arrangements shall be made to enable a person who, after examination, has been refused a certificate to apply for a further examination by a medical referee or referees who shall be independent of any shipowner or of any organisation of shipowners or seafarers.

 

Please indicate the arrangements for further examination by the medical referee(s) referred to in this Article.

 

Article 9

 

Any of the functions of the competent authority under this Convention may, after consultation with the organisations of shipowners and seafarers, be discharged by delegating the work, or part of it, to an organisation or authority exercising similar functions in respect of seafarers generally.

 

If advantage has been taken of the permissive provisions of this Article please indicate what functions of the competent authority under the Convention have been delegated, as well as the nature of the organisation or authority to which these duties may have been entrusted.

 

III.    Please state to what authority or authorities the application of the above-mentioned legislation and administrative regulations, etc., is entrusted, and by what methods application is supervised and enforced. In particular please supply information on the organization and working of inspection.

 

IV.    Please state whether courts of law or other tribunals have given decisions involving questions of principle relating to the application of the Convention. If so, please supply the text of these decisions.

 

V.      Please give a general appreciation of the manner in which the Convention is applied in your country, including, for instance, extracts from the reports of the inspection and registration services, and, if such statistics are available, information concerning the number of workers covered by the relevant legislation, the number and nature of the contraventions reported, etc.

 

VI.    Please indicate the representative organizations of employers and workers to which copies of the present report have been communicated in accordance with article 23, paragraph 2, of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization.[1] If copies of the report have not been communicated to representative organizations of employers and/or workers, or if they have been communicated to bodies other than such organizations, please supply information on any particular circumstances existing in your country which explains the procedure followed.

 

Please indicate whether you have received from the organizations of employers or workers concerned any observations, either of a general kind or in connection with the present or the previous report, regarding the practical application of the provisions of the Convention or the application of the legislation or other measures implementing the Convention. If so, please communicate a summary of the observations received, together with any comments that you consider useful.