Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

With reference to its observation, the Committee wishes to draw the Government’s attention to the following point.

Article 12, paragraph 1(a), of the Convention. Right of inspectors to enter workplaces freely: Timing of inspection visits. The 2007 Labour Institutions Act provides that a labour officer may, for the purpose of monitoring or enforcing compliance with any labour law, “at all reasonable times, enter, inspect and examine any land or building … in which the labour officer has a reasonable ground to believe that an employee is residing or is employed” (section 35(1)(e)). The Committee refers to its General Survey of 2006 on labour inspection (paragraphs 268–271) and recalls that the purpose of Article 12(1)(a) of the Convention, which provides that inspectors “shall be empowered to enter freely and without previous notice at any hour of the day or night any workplace liable to inspection” is to allow inspectors to carry out inspections, where necessary and possible, in order to ensure the protection of workers and in accordance with the technical requirements of inspection. Inspectors should also be authorized to decide when inspection of the workplace is appropriate. The Committee therefore requests the Government to clarify in its next report the practical scope of the expression “at all reasonable times” used in the 2007 Labour Institutions Act and to indicate how it is ensured that it is the labour officer who decides whether the time to visit an establishment or a workplace is or is not reasonable.