R145 - Dock Work Recommendation, 1973 (No. 145)

Subject MatterTrabajadores portuarios,Dockworkers,Dockers
CourtInternational Labour Organization
Preamble

The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,

Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Fifty-eighth Session on 6 June 1973, and

Considering that important changes have taken place and are taking place in cargo-handling methods in docks--such as the adoption of unit loads, the introduction of roll-on roll-off techniques and the increase of mechanisation and automation--and in the pattern of movement of freight, and that such changes are expected to become more widespread in the future, and

Considering that such changes, by speeding up freight movements, reducing the time spent by ships in ports and lowering transport costs, may benefit the economy of the country concerned as a whole and contribute to the raising of the standard of living, and

Considering that such changes also involve considerable repercussions on the level of employment in ports and on the conditions of work and life of dockworkers, and that measures should be adopted to prevent or to reduce the problems consequent thereon, and

Considering that dockworkers should share in the benefits secured by the introduction of new methods of cargo handling and that, accordingly, action for the lasting improvement of their situation, by such means as regularisation of employment and stabilisation of income, and other measures relating to their conditions of work and life, as well as to safety and health aspects of dock work, should be planned and taken concurrently with the planning and introduction of new methods, and

Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to social repercussions of new methods of cargo handling (docks), which is the fifth item on the agenda of the session, and

Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation supplementing the Dock Work Convention, 1973,

adopts this twenty-fifth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and seventy-three, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Dock Work Recommendation, 1973:

I. Scope and Definitions
  1. 1. Except as otherwise provided in Paragraph 36, this Recommendation applies to persons who are regularly available for work as dockworkers and who depend on their work as such for their main annual income.
  2. 2. For the purpose of this Recommendation the terms dockworkers and dock work mean persons and activities defined as such by national law or practice. The organisations of employers and workers concerned should be consulted on or otherwise participate in the establishment and revision of such definitions. Account should be taken in this connection of new methods of cargo handling and their effect on the various dockworker occupations.
II. The Impact of Changes in Cargo-Handling Methods
  1. 3. In each country and, as appropriate, each port, the probable impact of changes in cargo-handling methods, including the impact on the employment opportunities for, and the conditions of employment of, dockworkers, as well as on the occupational structure in ports, should be regularly and systematically assessed, and the action to be taken in consequence systematically reviewed, by bodies in which representatives of the organisations of employers and workers concerned and, as appropriate, of the competent authorities participate.
  2. 4. The introduction of new methods of cargo handling and related measures should be co-ordinated with national and regional development and manpower programmes and policies.
  3. 5. For the purposes set out in Paragraphs 3 and 4, all relevant information should be collected continuously, including in particular--
    • (a) statistics of freight movement through ports, showing the methods of handling used;
    • (b) flow charts showing the origin and the destination of the main streams of freight handled, as well as the points of assembly and dispersion of the contents of containers and other unit loads;
    • (c) estimates of future trends, if possible similarly presented;
    • (d) forecasts of manpower required in ports to handle cargo, taking account of future developments in methods of cargo handling and...

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