Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

The Committee notes the Government’s report and the documents which are attached or which were supplied subsequently at the Office’s request. It also notes the partial replies to its previous comments and the sheets presenting statistical tables on inspection for 1999.

1. Publication and communication to the ILO of an annual inspection report. Noting that the Government has not supplied, as announced, the annual inspection report for 2000, the Committee wishes to emphasize once again that, under the terms of Articles 20 and 21 of the Convention, laws and regulations relevant to the work of the inspection service, as well as information on the staff of the labour inspection service and statistics of workplaces liable to inspection and the number of workers employed therein, inspection visits, violations and penalties imposed, industrial accidents and occupational diseases, should be contained in an annual report published regularly and communicated to the ILO by the central inspection authority. It hopes that the Government will not fail to ensure, as it has undertaken to do, that such a report is available in future.

2. Legislation on labour inspection. The Committee notes the communication of Order No. 137 of 2001 designating the officials competent to supervise the implementation of labour legislation and its implementing texts, which annuls a series of texts, namely Order No. 30 of 1977 and the texts amending it, and Orders No. 46 of 1977, No. 84 of 1985 and No. 93 of 1992, which had been provided with a report received in October 2000. In the latter report, the Government referred, among others, to Order No. 113 of 1995 respecting the conditions and characteristics for the adequate accommodation of workers and No. 114 of 1996 on the conditions required for the protection of workers and persons present at workplaces against occupational risks. It also referred to a manual published by the Labour Department on violations committed by employers and workers, including contraventions of occupational safety requirements. The Committee requests the Government to provide copies of the above texts so that it has the necessary information to assess the extent to which the Convention is applied.

3. Statistics of industrial accidents and occupational diseases. The Committee notes with interest that the statistics of industrial accidents are classified, as advocated in Paragraph 9(f) of the Labour Inspection Recommendation (No. 81), by industry and occupation, according to cause and whether they are fatal or non-fatal. However, it once again reminds the Government that, under the terms of Article 21(g) of the Convention, statistics of occupational diseases should also be compiled and published. It hopes that the Government will not fail to ensure that statistics of occupational diseases are in future contained in annual inspection reports. It would be useful if both statistics of occupational diseases and of industrial accidents are also classified according to the guidance provided by the Recommendation (Paragraph 9(g)).

4. Statistics of violations and penalties. The Committee notes that the information and details provided by the statistical tables concerning violations almost exclusively concern the legal provisions on work permits, authorizations for the recruitment of foreign workers and the lawfulness of the employment relationship. Statistics are missing on violations of the legal provisions relating to occupational safety and health and other conditions of work liable to supervision by inspectors, such as working hours and wages. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would ensure, where possible, that statistics of violations of legal provisions in the above fields indicate the number of infringements reported to the competent authorities, the classification of such infringements according to the legal provisions to which they relate and the nature of the penalties imposed.

5. The Government is also requested to provide detailed information on the measures guaranteeing labour inspectors stability of employment and independence of improper external influences.