International
Labour Organization
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 Thirty-sixth Session on 4 June 1953, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to the minimum age of admission to work underground in coal mines, which is the sixth item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation,
adopts this nineteenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and fifty-three, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Minimum Age (Coal Mines) Recommendation, 1953:
The Conference recommends that each Member should apply the following provisions as rapidly as national conditions allow and report to the International Labour Office as requested by the Governing Body concerning the measures taken to give effect thereto.
1. Young persons under 16 years of age should not be employed underground in coal mines.
2. Young persons who have attained the age of 16 years but are under 18 years of age should not be employed underground in coal mines except--
(a) for purposes of apprenticeship or other systematic vocational training provided under adequate supervision by competent persons with technical and practical experience of the work; or
(b) under conditions determined by the competent authority, after consultation with the employers' and workers' organisations concerned, relating to the places of work and occupations permitted and the measures of systematic medical and safety supervision to be applied.