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Referring to its observation, the Committee wishes to emphasize once again the importance of the publication and communication to the International Labour Office of an annual report on the work of the inspection services. At the national level, this is an essential instrument for the government authorities, as well as the social partners, to assess the level of the application of the national legislation respecting conditions of work and to combine their efforts for its improvement. At the international level, such a report allows the ILO’s supervisory bodies to establish and maintain a constructive dialogue with the Government so as to support it in the implementation of the commitments deriving from the ratification of the Convention, thereby bearing witness to its will to achieve the conditions for social peace.

While welcoming the dissuasive penal provisions set out in Order No. 851/2001, the Committee nevertheless wishes to recall that, while the function of inspection necessarily takes on a repressive nature, it also includes missions of an informative and pedagogical character, with regard to both employers and workers, which are designed to prevent, where that is preferable taking into account the objective pursued, the need to have recourse to coercion. This is the objective of the wording of Article 17, paragraph 2, of the Convention, under the terms of which, even where those who violate provisions are liable to prompt legal proceedings, it should be left to the discretion of the labour inspectors to give warning and advice instead of instituting or recommending proceedings.

The Committee is concerned about the position of labour inspectors and their legislative functions in relation to irregular employment, particularly the extent to which the majority of their work appears to be focused on irregular employment to the detriment of their enforcement functions in the area of labour conditions. The Committee requests the Government to provide information as to the role they perform and the manner of its implementation in practice. So as to enable the central labour inspection authority to assess the real impact of the new legislative provisions giving effect to the Convention and the substantial improvements in the resources available to the inspection services, labour inspectors should be encouraged to develop their capacities in the field of reporting, both on their inspection activities and on the results of these activities, and in relation to information and advice.

The Committee expresses the firm hope that the Government will provide information in its next report on all developments concerning the application of the Convention in law and practice and that it will ensure the publication and communication to the ILO, by the central inspection authority, of an annual report containing the information required under each item of Article 21(a) to (g) in the manner advocated by Part IV of the Labour Inspection Recommendation, 1947 (No. 81), which supplements the Convention.