Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2006, published 96th ILC session (2007)

Referring also to its observation, the Committee notes the Government’s report and asks the Government to provide additional information relating to the following points.

1. Articles 14 and 16 of the Convention. Number of labour inspectors and protection of agricultural workers. The Committee notes that the table referring to labour inspection activity in the agricultural sector indicates a significant reduction in the number of agricultural establishments visited in 2005, in comparison to previous years. The difference is particularly noticeable in respect of aquaculture undertakings, where the reported rate of occupational accidents remains very high. Since the same inspectors perform their duties in all of the sectors covered, the Committee requests the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure that agricultural undertakings benefit from the current and future reinforcement of the number of labour inspectors, including through the appointment of medical inspectors, and to communicate, in its next report, information on any progress made, notably with regard to hazardous agricultural activities.

2. Article 13. Collaboration of employers’ and workers’ organizations. The Committee requests the Government to communicate information on the measures taken or envisaged to promote effective collaboration with agricultural employers’ and workers’ organizations for the purposes set forth in the Convention.

3. Article 27. Annual inspection report. While noting the efforts made to present statistics on inspection visits, observations and statistics on occupational accidents in agricultural undertakings, the Committee asks the Government to take measures to ensure that this information is supplemented, in the part of the annual report which relates to the agricultural sector, with information on the number of undertakings liable to labour inspection, the number of persons working in these undertakings, the violations committed and penalties imposed and the occupational diseases and their causes, in such way as to enable the central authority to evaluate the effectiveness of the inspection system in terms of needs and determine the steps to be taken to improve it.