Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Articles 20 and 21 of the Convention. Obligation to publish and send an annual report on the work of the labour inspection services to the ILO. The Committee notes that, despite its repeated requests for many years, effect has still not been given to Article 20  concerning the central labour inspection authority’s obligation to publish and send an annual report on inspection activities to the ILO and to Article 21 concerning the information that such a report should contain with respect to the subjects covered in clauses (a) to (g). The various statistical tables on industrial accidents and workers in receipt of compensation or a pension contain no analysis enabling the Committee to evaluate the resources and results of labour inspection in terms of the prevention of occupational risks during the six-year period covered. No information is available concerning the number of workplaces liable to inspection, the number of workers occupied in them, the violations reported and the penalties imposed on those responsible for them, so that the data concerning the numbers of labour inspectors sent in each of these reports by the Government shed no light to enable an evaluation of the extent to which human resources are matched to the protection needs of workers in the country who should be covered by inspection services under the terms of the Convention. The Committee urges the Government to adopt measures to give full effect to the abovementioned Articles of the Convention on the basis of the developments described in its 2006 General Survey on labour inspection with regard to the usefulness at national and international level of the publication of an annual inspection report and its regular transmission to the ILO (paragraphs 320–345). It would be grateful if the Government would also refer to the valuable guidance contained in Paragraph 9 of the Labour Inspection Recommendation, 1947 (No. 81), with regard to the drawing up of an annual report, which would help to achieve a true evaluation of the functioning of the labour inspection system and ongoing improvements to it.