Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government concerning working conditions of nursing personnel in the public sector. Further to its previous comments, it hopes that the Government will supply in its next report information on the following points.

Articles 2, paragraph 2(b) and 5, paragraph 2, of the Convention. Referring to its previous comments regarding the Government’s statement on its policy allowing employees in both the private and public sectors to freely organize in trade unions and engage in collective bargaining, the Committee recalls that the Government referred to this statement in its report received in 1994. In the report received in 1999, the Government indicated that it would send a copy of this declaration, published in June 1997, through the United Nations Development Programme. However, as the Committee indicated in its 1999 direct request, no such copy has been received. While reiterating its request that the Government send a copy of this declaration, it requests the Government to provide clarification as to whether the declaration adopted in 1997 is an adaptation of the one mentioned in the report received in 1994. It also requests the Government to supply information on any factor concerning nursing personnel in the context of this declaration. It also hopes that the revision of the general terms and conditions of employment applicable to members of the Christian Hospitals’ Association of Malawi (CHAM) will shortly be completed and that the Government will supply a copy.

Article 6. While noting the information supplied by the Government concerning the duration of day and night work, weekly leave, paid annual leave, sick leave, maternity leave and social security, the Committee requests the Government to specify whether the new scale relating to hours of work and weekly rest in the public sector has been established and, if so, requests the Government to supply a copy with its next report.

Article 7 and Part V of the report form. In the absence of any information on this matter, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the progress made in the occupational safety and hygiene field after consultation with the employers’ organizations and the nursing personnel concerned, and to supply available statistical data. Referring, furthermore, to its 1990 general observation, repeated in 1994, the Committee noted in its previous comments the progress made in protection against accidental exposure of nursing staff to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or contemplated in regard to nursing staff who are infected or considered to be infected by HIV (adaptation of working conditions, recognition that the cause of infection was occupational, etc.).