Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Angola (Ratification: 1976)

Other comments on C081

Observation

Direct Request

Display in: French - SpanishView all

The Committee refers the Government to its observation and requests it to provide further information on the following points.

Articles 3(1)(a), 10, 16 and 21(b) and (c) of the Convention. Matching human resources to inspection needs. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would communicate the total number of labour inspectors currently in service. It also requests the Government to specify which inspection staff categories are responsible for inspection visits to workplaces and whether all the inspectors assigned to workplace inspection have responsibility for ensuring enforcement of legal provisions regarding safety and health at work. Furthermore, the Committee requests the Government to provide updated information in its next report on the number of workplaces liable to inspection and the number of workers employed therein.

Articles 3(1)(a), 13, 17 and 18. The role of labour inspectors regarding occupational safety, health and welfare. The Committee notes that the annual inspection report for 2010 shows a greater tendency to remedy infringements in the area of general working conditions than in the area of health and safety. It also notes that, according to information contained in the same report, the most widespread infringements in terms of occupational health and safety are: the failure to provide personal protective equipment to workers or the provision of quantitatively and qualitatively inadequate equipment; the failure of workers to undergo medical examinations and the failure to set up occupational health and safety services and employment injury prevention committees. The Committee notes from the information provided in the two annual reports that there is a fairly marked difference between the number of “social” and “technical” visits. The Committee requests the Government to specify reasons which may explain such a difference in the number of these visits, the purposes of which are to supervise general working conditions on the one hand and, on the other, occupational health and safety. The Committee would also be grateful if the Government would provide information on the manner in which labour inspectors exercise the powers provided for in Article 13 of the Convention (with statistics on injunction measures with specific time limits and those with immediate executory force ordered during the period covered by the Government’s last report), and on the sanctions imposed.

Article 3(1)(a) and (2). Extending the legislative areas covered by the labour inspection services. Inspection of working conditions and illegal employment. The Committee notes the information contained in the annual inspection report for 2010, according to which labour inspectors are responsible for monitoring the presence of foreigners legally entitled to be in the country and compliance with the contractual conditions concluded between them and the employers. The Committee requests the Government to specify the role of labour inspectors with regard to foreign workers who are not legally entitled to remain in the country, and the manner in which it is ensured that these workers can obtain their entitlements acquired in the course of their actual employment relationship.

Articles 4 and 11. Supervision and control of the labour inspection system by a central authority and human and financial resources, and means of action and transport available to the inspection services. The Committee notes that, according to information contained in the annual inspection report for 2011, the General Labour Inspectorate is the central inspection authority. The Committee understands that the expenses related to inspection activities are assumed, to some extent, by the general secretariat of the Ministry of Public Administration, Employment and Social Security and by provincial government budgets. The Committee requests the Government to specify how the central inspection authority ensures that the offices, especially local offices, have human resources, equipment and office furnishings that meet the needs of each one, and the necessary transport facilities for inspection duties to be performed according to the needs of each province, and that the labour inspectors of the various provincial services are reimbursed for all travelling and incidental expenses necessary for the performance of their duties. The Committee also requests the Government to describe the means of transport assigned to each local inspection office.

Part V of the report form. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the representative workers’ and employers’ organizations to which a copy of the Government’s report has been provided, in accordance with article 23, paragraph 2 of the ILO Constitution. If no copy has been provided to the above organizations, the Committee requests the Government to specify the reasons which may explain such a situation.