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With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes the Government’s report and the attached documents. It notes that, three years after the date announced by the Government in an earlier report, and following the discussion in the Committee on the Application of Standards in the International Labour Conference in June 2000, the specific conditions of service of labour inspectors have still not been adopted. It also notes with concern the information contained in the reports of the activities of the regional labour inspectorates concerning their lack of the human, material and logistical resources indispensable for their operation. The maintenance, rent and provision of water and electricity for the premises, which are generally old, short of office furniture and devoid of user reception facilities, are not covered in the labour administration budget, but depend on the assistance provided by the community or the wilaya. The lack of vehicles precludes any professional travel by inspectors to areas liable to inspection and far from their offices. Moreover, due to the lack of office and security staff, inspection services are closed to the public during the absence for professional reasons of the sole labour inspector. Furthermore, the confidential nature of certain information cannot be guaranteed, in accordance with Article 15(b) and (c) of the Convention, as the typing of inspectors’ correspondence is entrusted to third parties. The number of inspections is, under these conditions, derisory with relation to needs, which are not even quantified, as there is no register of workplaces. For example, the Gorgol inspectorate, covering three wilayas,  only carried out eight inspections in 2002.

The Committee notes with interest the concern expressed in one of the activity reports to develop workers’ education and familiarize employers with a view to fostering a harmonious social climate, and that the attention of the competent authority was drawn to the legal shortcomings which, in the labour inspector’s view, are responsible for situations that are prejudicial to workers and to a case of confusion relating to the initiation of legal proceedings by the labour inspectorate.

The Government indicates in its report that the Convention is applied in accordance with the legislative provision and regulations that are in force and that the employers’ and workers’ organizations to which the report has been transmitted have made no observations concerning the application of the Convention. The Committee notes that, in one of the regional reports on the work of the inspection services transmitted by the Government, the relations between the labour inspectorate and the regional structure of the General Confederation of Mauritanian Workers (CGTM) are marked by conflicts and a climate of intimidation, while the other trade union structures have never contacted the labour inspection services concerned. The Committee is bound to remind the Government of the obligation, by virtue of the ratification of the Convention, to adopt all the necessary measures to apply its provisions, in both law and practice, with a view to achieving its primary objective, namely compliance with the legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers enforceable by the labour inspectorate in the industrial and commercial workplaces liable to their inspection.

Being aware of the Government’s difficulties in achieving the conditions necessary for the application of the Convention, the Committee nevertheless notes that international cooperation projects for the reinforcement of the labour administration have been launched, but that, according to the Government’s reports to the ILO under the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the inadequacy of the human and financial resources of the labour inspectorate constitutes a major obstacle to its discharge of its supervisory duties in such fields as child labour and wage discrimination. The Committee hopes that, in the framework of these projects, an appropriate share of resources will be allocated to assessing needs and reinforcing the labour inspection system with a view to progressively extending its supervisory, advisory and information services and contributing to the improvement of the legislation, as envisaged by the Convention. The Committee emphasizes the importance of tripartite collaboration in this respect and hopes that the Government will not fail to adopt measures rapidly for its promotion, in accordance with Article 5(b) of the Convention, and that it will be in a position to announce in its next report the adoption of the specific conditions of service of labour inspectors, in accordance with the provisions of Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention, and the legal provisions conferring upon labour inspectors the powers set forth in Articles 3, 9, 12, 13, 17 and 18 of the Convention and requiring compliance with the obligations set forth in Articles 15, 16 and 19.