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The Committee takes note of the Government’s report for the period ending on 31 December 2006, the information sent in reply to its previous comments, and the report of the General Labour Inspectorate for 2006. It also notes the adoption of the new Labour Act (No. 23 of 2007).

Human and financial resources, material facilities necessary to the working of the inspection system, international cooperation and ILO technical assistance. With reference to its previous comments in which it noted the low level of human resources both in number and in qualifications and inadequate facilities for the performance of inspection duties, the Committee notes that, according to the Government, the various requests made to partners in the context of international cooperation to improve the transport facilities of the inspection services did not produce the results expected. The Government states that this is because the new Labour Act had not been adopted and that one of the prerequisites was the restructuring of the inspection services. The Ministry has taken the necessary measures: controllers, who hitherto reported to the National Social Security Institute, have now been incorporated into a single body with labour inspectors; furthermore, a new Labour Act was adopted in 2007 and, pending international financial aid to increase the number of vehicles available to the labour inspectorate, the Ministry has already succeeded in mobilizing resources to acquire four vehicles for use by the central services. Now that the inspectorate has been brought together into a single body, it is possible to use human and material resources more rationally. The Committee also notes with interest that with support from the Portuguese-speaking community and technical assistance from the ILO, training is planned for about 100 inspectors, together with computerization of the inspection system. The Committee hopes that the Government will shortly be in a position to report progress in the steps taken in relation to international cooperation and technical assistance, and that the functioning of the labour inspectorate will be reflected in the publication of an annual activities report in accordance with Articles 20 and 21.

The Committee is addressing a request directly to the Government.