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With reference to its observation, the Committee requests the Government to provide additional information on the following points.

Article 3, paragraph 1(b), of the Convention. Noting that information and awareness activities on matters relating to occupational safety and health have been carried out by the labour inspection services with the support of the media at the national and local levels in the construction sector, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate the impact of these activities in terms of employment accident statistics.

Article 5. Noting the adoption on 12 February 2000 of the General Labour Act, the Committee notes that section 93 of the Act provides for the creation of a joint commission in industrial and transport establishments for the prevention of industrial accidents with the collaboration of employers, workers, the labour inspectorate and other competent authorities in the field of occupational safety and health. Please keep the ILO informed of any measure taken in practice to give effect to this provision and provide copies of any relevant texts.

Article 6. According to the Government, despite the increase in the wage rates of public officials, the wages of labour inspectors are insufficient in relation to the cost of living. The Committee wishes to emphasize the need to take measures to guarantee labour inspectors remuneration and career prospects that are appropriate to their status and the numerous and complex tasks for which they are responsible, so as to attract and retain personnel in the profession who are protected from any improper external influences.

Article 7. Noting that, according to the Government, the provincial inspection departments require continuous methodological support, the Committee would be grateful if it would provide information on the nature of the needs that have been expressed. It also requests the Government to indicate the measures which have been taken or are envisaged with a view to the continuous training of labour inspectors.

Article 9. Noting that labour inspectors may, in accordance with the Handbook for labour inspectors of 1995, call on the collaboration of specialists in any discipline in the discharge of their duties, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide information on arrangements concerning such collaboration and the practical procedures for their implementation.

Article 14. Noting that the Labour Act of 11 February 2000 places the obligation upon employers of notifying the competent bodies of industrial accidents and cases of occupational disease which result in a work stoppage within specific time periods and in accordance with the law, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide copies of any texts issued under this provision, and of any laws or regulations respecting the cases and procedures for notification to the competent authorities of industrial accidents and cases of occupational disease.

Articles 19, 20 and 21. The Committee notes that, according to the inspection report provided, the provincial labour inspection departments are experiencing difficulties in compiling the inspection statistics required for the establishment of the quarterly reports that they are obliged to transmit to the central authority. These difficulties are impinging upon the latter’s implementation of its obligation to prepare, publish and transmit an annual report on the work of the inspection services under its control in the form and within the time limits set out in Article 20. The Committee notes in this respect that the report provided to the ILO does not cover a period of one year, but isolated six-monthly periods (first half of 1999 and first half of 2000) and that this report does not appear to be published in any way. Furthermore, these reports do not contain information on certain of the subjects set out in Article 21, which are indispensable in assessing the extent to which the Convention is applied and the effectiveness of the labour inspection services, namely: paragraph (b) staff of the labour inspection services; paragraph (c) statistics of workplaces liable to inspection and the number of workers employed therein; paragraph (g) statistics of occupational diseases. Recalling the attention that it paid in Chapter 7 of its 1995 General Survey on labour inspection to the question of reports of labour inspection services, the Committee hopes that the central inspection authority, within the meaning of the Convention, will not fail to take note of the above and that it will take the necessary measures to improve the implementation by the inspection services of their obligation to issue periodical reports in the form and in appropriate time limits with a view to enabling it to discharge its own obligations deriving from Articles 20 and 21. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide information on any progress achieved in this respect and requests it to take measures to ensure the publication by the central authority of the annual inspection report.