Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

Referring also to its observation, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide additional information on the following points.

1. Labour inspection and child labour. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its report on the application of the Minimum Age (Non-Industrial Employment) Convention, 1932 (No. 33), concerning the campaigns to raise awareness of child labour undertaken by the Ministry of Labour with UNICEF and other institutions with a view to discouraging clandestine employers of children and raising the awareness of parents with regard to this phenomenon. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether and in what way labour inspectors were involved in these campaigns.

2. Safety and health committees. The Government is requested to provide a copy of Order No. 0008 of 1999 respecting the organization and operation of safety and health committees in enterprises and establishments, to which reference is made in the inter-prefectoral inspection report attached to the Government’s report, and to indicate the number and distribution of the committees established under this text.

3. Legal basis for the functions of labour inspectors. Noting among the difficulties in the application of the Convention mentioned by the Government, the absence of texts to apply the provisions of the Labour Code respecting the duties and prerogatives of labour inspectors, and that when the report was sent these texts were at the stage of preliminary drafts, the Committee hopes that the situation has changed in this respect and that the Government will be in a position to provide information in its next report indicating the development of the relevant laws and regulations. It would be grateful if the Government would provide a copy of any new text adopted in this respect, indicate any progress achieved in the application of the provisions of the Convention and specify the effect given to the draft Decree issuing the specific conditions of service of labour inspectors and supervisors submitted for examination to the Minister of the Public Service, Employment Promotion and Modernization.

4. Staff of the labour inspection services. Please provide information on the total staff of the labour inspection services on the territory and its geographical distribution.

5. Powers of injunction of labour inspectors in the event of imminent danger to the health or safety of the workers (Article 13, paragraph 2, of the Convention). The Committee notes that, according to the Government, no case of any formal notice being issued has been reported under section 224(3) of the Labour Code and that the information contained in the report of the inter-prefectoral inspection services for the northern zone appears to confirm the failure to apply this provision. For this region alone, the high number of industrial accidents in the construction and public works sector (56 out of a total of 830 workers) appears to indicate that the safety conditions are not adequate in the establishments concerned and that they should give grounds for specific inspections. The Committee emphasizes the need to provide labour inspectors with the means to carry out effective supervision, combined with real powers of injunction, to ensure the protection of workers in general, and in particular those whose occupations involve specific risks. It requests the Government to provide information in its next report on such measures and their results, including information on the functioning in practice of any safety and health committees which are operational.

6. Notification to labour inspectors of industrial accidents and cases of occupational disease (Article 14). Noting that labour inspectors are informed of industrial accidents by the National Social Security Fund, the Committee recalls, as it emphasized in its 1985 General Survey on labour inspection (paragraph 86), that "Notifying the labour inspectorate is not an end in itself but part of the more general aim of accident prevention. Its purpose is to enable the labour inspectors to conduct investigations in the undertaking to establish the causes of work accidents and occupational diseases and to have steps taken to avoid their recurrence. Although accidents in undertaking may not necessarily cause actual injury, they can provide extremely useful information on the state of the buildings, plant and equipment". The Committee has considered that the indirect notification of industrial accidents and cases of occupational disease is not incompatible with Article 14 of the Convention, provided that the time that elapses between the occurrence of the occupational risk and the moment at which the inspectorate is informed is sufficiently short to allow inspectors, if they so wish, to undertake investigations in the enterprise. The Committee trusts that the Government will take the necessary measures to ensure that the practical conditions for the notification of industrial accidents, as well as cases of occupational disease, to labour inspectors allow the labour inspectorate to play its preventive role. It requests the Government to report any progress achieved in this respect and to provide copies of any relevant text.

7. Obligation of confidentiality of labour inspectors (Article 15(b)). The Committee notes the Government’s commitment to take measures to introduce into the legislation a provision prohibiting labour inspectors from revealing "even after leaving the service, any manufacturing or commercial secrets or working processes which may come to their knowledge in the course of their duties". It would be grateful if the Government would provide information on the measures taken in this respect.

8. Periodical reports and annual inspection reports (Articles 19, 20 and 21). The Committee notes that the only inspection report provided is the one concerning the northern zone. For the higher inspection authority to exercise control over the activities of the inspection services placed under its authority, it is necessary for it to be regularly informed of their activities. This information must be provided to it through periodical reports, the form and contents of which are set out in Article 19. The central authority is also itself under the obligation, in accordance with Article 20, to publish within the prescribed time limits a general report on the work of the inspection services covering, among other matters, the subjects set out in Article 21(a) to (g), and to transmit a copy to the ILO. With reference to paragraphs 273 et seq. of the above General Survey, regarding the dual value at the national and international levels of such a report, the Committee trusts that the Government will take the necessary measures in the near future to give effect to Articles 19, 20 and 21 of the Convention.