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The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee notes the Government’s report on the application of the Convention for the period from 31 May 2003 to 31 May 2005 and the attached Employment Act. In particular, the Committee notes with interest the quality of the information and analysis contained in the annual report on the work and activities of the labour inspectorate for 2004.

1. Articles 6 and 7 of the Convention. Impact of the conditions for the further training of labour inspectors on their conditions of service and career development. The Committee notes that, under the terms of section 13 of Act No. 56/2002 on inspection, an inspector may be suspended if he or she does not take a specialized examination within the established deadline or does not acquire the qualification due to his or her own fault. The same text provides that inspectors may also be suspended under other legal provisions regulating employment relations in state bodies. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would: (i) describe the administrative procedure through which an inspector is suspended in the two cases covered by the above provisions; (ii) indicate in detail the other legal provisions on the basis of which a decision may be made to suspend an inspector; and (iii) specify the consequences of suspension on terms and conditions of service (remuneration, career, social rights) and stability of employment, taking into account the terms of Article 6 of the Convention, and on the qualification of the inspector concerned.

2. Articles 10 and 3. Number of labour inspectors and other duties entrusted to them. The annual report on the work and activities of the labour inspectorate for 2004 refers to the inadequate numbers of labour inspectors and the urgent need to recruit new staff in view of the increase in the number of enterprises liable to inspection and the new legislation that the labour inspectorate is responsible for enforcing: 82 inspectors are responsible for supervising 176,335 establishments, or a ratio of 2,150 establishments per inspector. Moreover, the labour inspectorate is called upon by other ministers and public institutions to perform additional duties, such as, since 1997, participation in government campaigns for the detection and prevention of illegal work and employment, which mobilized over half of labour inspectors in 2004. The Committee reminds the Government that the principal function of labour inspectors is to secure the enforcement of the legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers and that it is essential, for the achievement of the socio‑economic objective of labour inspection, to ensure that any further duties that are entrusted to labour inspectors shall not be such as to interfere with the effective discharge of their primary duties nor to prejudice in any way the authority and impartiality which are necessary to inspectors in their relations with employers and workers (Article 3, paragraph 2). The Committee requests the Government to indicate the action taken as a result of the comments and suggestions made by the central inspection authority in the annual report on its activities, one of the objectives of which is, in relation to the aims of the Convention, to provide a basis for evaluating the operation of the inspection system in relation to needs and priorities and to determine measures intended to improve its effectiveness.

3. Article 11. Material working conditions and transport facilities of labour inspectors. According to the annual report referred to above, the working conditions of labour inspectors are not appropriate to the requirements of their functions: the offices are small and insufficient in number in seven areas, without the facilities to ensure the confidentiality of interviews or to file documents. Furthermore, the vehicles available are old and insufficient in numbers and would need to be increased rapidly so that inspectors can cover all the workplaces liable to inspection. Noting the indication regarding the lack of availability of the necessary resources, the Committee hopes that measures will nevertheless be taken rapidly by the Government, where necessary through recourse to external financial assistance, to improve the material working conditions of inspectors in terms of offices, equipment and transport facilities, as required by the Convention, and that relevant information will be provided in the next report.

4. Physical security of labour inspection staff. The annual inspection report for 2005 describes a climate of insecurity which has long affected regional offices shared by the labour inspectorate and other services of the public administration and the risk of the aggravation of the situation due to the implementation of the new powers to impose sanctions with which inspectors have been entrusted since 2005. It is suggested that security measures should be adopted to protect inspectors from potential acts of violence by discontented individuals, and that rules for reporting and behaviour in the event of all types of threat, such as the instructions prepared for labour inspectors in 1998, should be applicable to all staff sharing regional offices. Noting from the annual report that, where necessary, inspectors are assisted by the police during inspections, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide a copy of the 1998 instructions referred to in the annual report and indicate the measures adopted to ensure the physical security of officials in labour inspection offices.

5. Article 17. Power of labour inspectors to initiate prompt legal proceedings. The annual report on the work and activities of the labour inspectorate indicates that, since May 2005, labour inspectors have been entrusted with powers to initiate penal proceedings under the Misdemeanours Act, particularly through fast-track procedures, and are empowered to impose fines, the amounts of which have been raised. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide a copy of the Misdemeanours Act and supply clarifications in its next report on the fast-track procedures referred to above and their impact in practice.

6. Part VI of the report form. The Committee once again requests the Government to provide the observations made by the Employers’ Association of Slovenia in 2002 and the Association of Employers for Craft Activities in 2003, to which it referred in its previous report.