Observación (CEACR) - Adopción: 2010, Publicación: 100ª reunión CIT (2011)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report makes no reference to any progress on the matters raised in its previous comments.

Articles 14 and 15 of the Convention. Material resources essential to the performance of labour inspection duties. According to the Government, the lack of progress in applying the Convention is due to the inadequate material resources available to the labour inspectorate, and in particular the absence of suitable transport facilities for visits to agricultural undertakings in remote rural areas. The Committee reminds the Government that in ratifying the Convention, it undertook to adopt the necessary measures to apply the Convention in law and in practice. Since transport facilities are essential to the performance of inspection duties in agricultural undertakings, it is up to the Government to do its utmost to provide such facilities for the inspection services working in rural areas with no public transport. The Committee requests the Government to take all necessary measures (under the national budget and, if necessary, by seeking international financial cooperation) to provide labour inspectors visiting agricultural undertakings with the means of action and the vehicles and/or transport facilities they need to perform their duties, in accordance with the abovementioned provisions of the Convention. The Government is asked to keep the Office informed of any such measures and of progress made in the period covered by its next report.

Article 9. Training a sufficient number of suitably qualified labour inspection staff for the agricultural sector, particularly in the area of the safety and health risks facing agricultural workers. In its previous observation the Committee stressed the need to train sufficient numbers of qualified inspection staff particularly in the area of the occupational safety and health risks facing agricultural workers. The Government indicates that the duties of the inspectorate are comprehensive in scope, so the training provided for labour inspectors is multi-sectoral. Every inspector is therefore expected to work in all sectors of activity. In the Government’s view, an inspection system organized in this way is on no account at odds with the Convention. The Committee is bound to point out that although the Convention does not require a specific body of inspectors to be created solely for the agricultural sector, it does provide, in Article 9(3), that labour inspectors in agriculture shall be adequately trained for the performance of their duties. Furthermore, measures must be taken to give them appropriate further training in the course of their employment. Accordingly, even where the coverage of a labour inspectorate is comprehensive, specific training is necessary for inspectors who work or who will work in the agricultural sector. There are activities specific to the agricultural sector – for example those involving the use of pesticides and other chemicals – for which technical knowledge must be acquired. The Committee draws the Government’s attention to Paragraphs 4–7 of the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Recommendation, 1969 (No. 133), on the minimum qualifications needed by labour inspectors called upon to work in the agricultural sector, and again urges it to take the necessary steps to ensure that inspectors who work or will be called upon to work in agricultural undertakings receive suitable training, and to provide information on these measures and their results.

Articles 3, 14, 16, 18, 21, 25, 26 and 27. Inspection work in agricultural undertakings and the requirement to submit reports. Further to its previous comments and to its general observation of 2009, the Committee notes the Government’s acknowledgement that in a country which is essentially agricultural, statistics on agricultural undertakings and the workers they employ are an absolute necessity. It notes that, unfortunately, an attempt to record the workplaces liable to inspection was unsuccessful. Noting that the Government has expressed a need for ILO technical assistance in compiling a register of agricultural undertakings, the Committee can only commend the Government on its initiation of such an operation and points out that it is essential to examine why it did not succeed and to look for other approaches. The Committee requests the Government to provide full information and any documentation relevant to the measures set in motion to compile a chart of agricultural undertakings (instructions, circulars, forms, inspection reports, etc.), together with a detailed explanation of why the project was not completed.

The Committee requests the Government to take decisive steps to promote cooperation between the institutions and public and semi-public bodies that have data relevant to the labour inspectorate with a view to gradually recording agricultural undertakings, as a first step listing at least plantations and other intensive farming enterprises (national, multi-national or combined), and to provide information on these measures and the results obtained during the period covered by the next report on the application of this Convention.

Lastly, the Committee requests the Government to ensure that pending the establishment, with ILO technical assistance, of a register of agricultural undertakings, the central inspection authority publishes and sends to the ILO at the earliest possible date and on an annual basis, all available information on inspection activities and their outcome (applicable legislation, inspection staff involved, number of undertakings and workers covered, control of legislation, raising awareness of occupational risks, warnings, penalties imposed and actually applied, etc.) in agricultural undertakings in the period covered by the next report.