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The Committee refers the Government to its observation and asks it to provide additional information on the following points.

Labour inspection and child labour. The Committee notes that concern is expressed in the annual inspection report for 2000 about instances of child labour detected, particularly in certain sectors of activity, and that the central inspection authority intends to focus on supervision of the relevant legislation. It requests the Government to ensure that information on infringements reported and the measures and sanctions applied to combat child labour are regularly included in the annual inspection report.

Article 5 of the Convention. The Committee again requests the Government to provide copies of any texts applying section 93 of the Labour Code which provides for the establishment of an occupational accident prevention committee in industrial and transport undertakings.

Article 6. The Committee has already addressed the matter of the level of labour inspectors’ wages in relation to the cost of living and has stressed the need to ensure that inspectors’ remuneration and career prospects take into account the complexity of their duties in order to attract and retain in the profession staff of high quality and independent of improper external influences. The Committee observes that neither the Government’s report nor the inspection reports mention any measures taken or envisaged to this end and trusts that the Government will provide information on progress in this regard in its next report.

Article 7. The Committee notes with interest that in May 2003 21 labour inspectors attended a 78-hour training course on occupational safety, health and hygiene. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would continue to provide information on the measures taken to train serving inspectors, so that they can adapt their working methods to the new technologies and situations encountered in the sectors of activity covered by the Convention.

Articles 13 and 16. According to the report on occupational accidents in 2001, the number of such accidents has increased considerably by comparison with the previous year. The Committee trusts that in its next report the Government will provide information on measures taken to reverse this situation and to strengthen supervisory activities in workplaces where frequent accidents or particular risk factors have been identified. It further calls on the Government to ensure that labour inspectors carry out their preventive duties including the provision of information and technical advice to workers and employers and their organizations.

Articles 5(a) and 14. With reference to its previous comments, and noting that according to the annual report for 2003 the number of accidents and cases of occupational disease sent by employers to the inspection services bears no relation whatsoever to the data submitted by the insurance funds, the Committee points out the usefulness of measures to encourage cooperation between the inspection services and other services with similar activities (Article 5(a)). It again requests the Government to provide copies of any provisions implementing section 89(b) of Act No. 2/00 (Labour Code) regarding time limits and procedures for reporting occupational accidents and cases of occupational sickness to the competent authorities.

Article 18. The Committee notes that, according to the inspection report for 2003, many local inspection services are having difficulty in enforcing sanctions and that, in the majority of cases, the amounts of pecuniary sanctions are inconsistent with the law. The Committee further notes that the local services have no incentive to apply the sanctions because, in breach of Decree No. 11/03, the provincial financial authorities do not make over the proceeds of sanctions to the central labour inspectorate. The Committee requests the Government to take the necessary steps to give full effect to this Article of the Convention, to inform the Office of them and to provide detailed information on the source of the funds assigned to the labour inspectorate.

Articles 19, 20 and 21. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes with interest that the annual report for 2003 contains statistics of the workplaces visited, inspections carried out, violations, sanctions, occupational accidents and an indication of the cases of occupational disease. Noting that the list of inspectorate staff and a table showing recently adopted legislation were appended to the abovementioned report, the Committee requests the Government to ensure that annual inspection reports also contain statistics of the workplaces liable to inspection, the number of workers employed in them and occupational diseases (Article 21(b), (c) and (g)), are in future regularly published and sent to the Office within the time limit prescribed by Article 20.

The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide a copy of Decree No. 11/03 of 11 March 2003.