CMNT_TITLE

Referring also to its observation under the Convention, the Committee requests the Government to provide information on the following points.

1. Labour inspection in export processing zones. The Committee notes that under section 20 of the Industrial Expansion Act of 1993 a number of exceptions in the application of labour standards, mainly as concerns hours of work, are allowed in workplaces or businesses covered by this Act. It also takes note of available information that a great proportion of workers in manufacturing industries are employed in workplaces or businesses in export processing zones (according to data released by the Central Statistical Office, the number of employees in manufacturing industries in Mauritius was 136,700 in 1997, of which 81,300, or 59.5 per cent, worked in EPZs). The Committee hopes that the Government will provide detailed information on the work of the labour inspection in workplaces in EPZs and on the results achieved through inspection.

2. Annual inspection report (Articles 20 and 21). The Committee notes that a consolidated report of the Ministry of Labour and Industrial Relations for the period July 1987 to June 1995 has been compiled and will be sent to the ILO as soon as it is tabled in the National Assembly, and that the reports for subsequent years are being compiled and will be sent to the ILO as soon as they are published. The Committee hopes that these reports will soon be communicated to the ILO and that they will contain the information on the work of the labour inspection system including all the subjects listed in Article 21 of the Convention.

3. Number of workplaces (Article 10). The Committee requests the Government to provide statistics on the number of workplaces liable to inspection.