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1. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes with satisfaction that the supervision of trade union activities entrusted to labour inspectors by section 41 of Legislative Decree No. 2351 of 1965, which is in contradiction with Article 3, paragraph 2, of the Convention, has been abolished by section 20 of Act No. 584 of 13 June 2000 repealing and amending certain provisions of the Labour Code.

2. The Committee nevertheless notes that the principal activities carried out by labour inspectors remain conciliation in the context of labour disputes and a certain number of other activities not closely related to the principal duties that should be assigned to them in accordance with Article 3, paragraph 1. Labour inspectors, whose numbers do not appear to have increased according to statistics for the year 2000, undertook 64,985 conciliation procedures, not including attempted conciliations, but only carried out 6,692 workplace inspections, including inspections related to occupational safety and health. Each inspector would have therefore carried out only 24.5 inspections, compared with 238 conciliations during the above period. The Committee would be grateful if the Government envisages taking the necessary measures to ensure that inspectors in future devote most of their working time to their principal duties relating to the application of the legislation, with priority being given to the inspections which, in accordance with Article 16, they should undertake as often and as thoroughly as possible. It trusts that the Government will not fail to provide the ILO with information in this respect and that the results of the relevant measures will be reflected in the near future in statistical data on the work of the labour inspectors in accordance with the letter and spirit of the above provisions of the Convention.

The Committee is addressing a request directly to the Government on other points.