Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2010, published 100th ILC session (2011)

Also referring to its observation, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the following issues.

Articles 3(1)(a) and 19 of the Convention. Method of supervision applied during visits to workplaces subject to inspection and reporting to the central authority. In its report the Government indicates that it will provide the previously requested completed samples of inspection forms in due course. The Committee once again requests the Government to transmit completed samples of inspection forms indicating the action taken by labour inspectors where violations have been identified, and to specify the manner in which, and how often, the central inspection authority is informed of the supervisory activities of the inspectors and the action taken thereon.

Article 3(2). Further duties entrusted to labour inspectors. The Government indicates that the separation of the duties of labour inspectors from those of conciliators will be considered in the context of the labour law reform process which is under way. The Committee recalls from its previous comments its opinion that labour inspectors retain a too important role in the overall procedure for dispute settlement. In the current context of resource constraints, such additional duties certainly obstruct the effective discharge of the primary duties conferred on them in accordance with Article 3(1). The Committee once again urges the Government to ensure that labour inspectors are no longer entrusted with conciliation duties, either in law or in practice, and to keep the Office informed of progress made in this regard in the framework of the labour law reform which is under way, in particular as concerns the project to create a body of adjudicators of labour disputes.

Article 13. Powers of injunction of labour inspectors. With reference to the Committee’s previous comments in this regard, the Government indicates that the powers of inspectors are sufficiently wide to include direct injunctions where the health, safety and life of workers is endangered. The Committee once again observes that according to section 6 of the Factories and Works Act, inspectors are entitled to serve injunctions directly on employers where they find the workers’ health to be at risk, only if it is established that the authority to which they are required to notify defects has not taken the necessary steps to eliminate them or to punish the employer in question. The legislation therefore does not provide that measures with immediate executory force may be ordered either directly by the inspectors or, on their recommendation, by the competent authority in the event of imminent danger to the health or safety of the workers. The Committee once again requests the Government to take all necessary measures to supplement the legislation to this effect, in accordance with Article 13(2)(b), including, if necessary, by means of instructions of a regulatory or administrative nature to labour inspectors, to keep the ILO informed of any progress in this respect and to provide copies of any relevant texts.