Labour Inspection

In accordance with the provisions of article 19, paragraph 5(e), of the Constitution of the International Labour Organization, the Governing Body of the International Labour Office decided at its 288th Session (November 2003) to request the governments of member States which had not ratified either the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), and the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129), or the Protocol of 1995 to the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), to report on the present state of their laws and practices in regard to the matters dealt with in these instruments, showing the extent to which effect has been given, or is proposed to be given, to the respective provisions of the instruments by legislation, administrative action, collective agreement or otherwise and stating the difficulties which prevent or delay their ratification. As a result of this decision and in accordance with the provisions of article 19, paragraph 6(d), of the Constitution, the governments of all the member States were requested to report on the present state of their laws and practices in regard to the matters dealt with in the Labour Inspection Recommendation, 1947 (No. 81), the Labour Inspection (Mining and Transport) Recommendation, 1947 (No. 82), and the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Recommendation, 1969 (No. 133). This report is based on the reports provided pursuant to the above decision and on those reports that re regularly communicated to the ILO, under articles 22 and 35 of the Constitution, by virtue of ratification of any of the above Conventions or the Protocol. This is the sixth General Survey the Committee has produced, as requested by the Governing Body, on the effect given to ILO instruments on labour inspection. The Governing Body stressed how useful it would be to update this survey given the effects of socio-economic changes over the 20 years since the last one and to include labour inspection in the non-commercial services sector, as defined in the Protocol of 1995 to the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947. The governing Body drew the attention of Members to the importance of Convention No. 129 for agricultural workers who make up a large proportion of the working population in many countries, and asked that the survey include an analysis of the obstacles to this instrument’s ratification.