Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Panama (Ratification: 1958)

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:

Articles 10 and 16 of the Convention. In reply to the previous direct request, the Government states that it has no information on the number of inspection visits carried out in relation to the total number of workplaces liable to inspection. The Committee must stress that, in the absence of these figures, it cannot ascertain whether these workplaces are inspected as often and as thoroughly as is necessary. Consequently, it can only urge the Government to ensure that the necessary measures are taken to ensure the compilation of these statistics which are essential to an assessment of the extent to which the Convention is being applied. In this context, it also requests the Government to indicate the number of labour inspectors currently employed.

Article 11. The Government recognises that the labour inspectorate is encountering serious difficulties in carrying out its work, owing in particular to the lack of transport and other material facilities. It adds that budgetary restrictions arising out of the prevailing economic crisis in the country are preventing it from providing the inspectorate with the necessary means and facilities, but that it is endeavouring to solve these problems within the framework of international technical co-operation. The Committee requests the Government to report on developments in the situation and, in particular, on any progress made in applying this Article of the Convention.

Articles 20 and 21. The Committee notes from the Government's report that, owing to budgetary constraints, it has not been possible to publish labour statistics drawn up in accordance with the provisions of the Convention. In this connection, it wishes to recall (as it did in paragraph 277 of its General Survey on Labour Inspection of 1985 and in its general observation of 1986) that, in cases where there are difficulties of a financial nature in the publication of an annual report, recourse to inexpensive methods of printing - for instance roneoed and mimeographed inspection reports - should enable the requirements of the Conventions to be met, provided that the reports are widely disseminated among the authorities and administrations concerned and among workers' and employers' organisations, and that they are placed at the disposal of all interested parties.

The Committee trusts that, in future, annual inspection reports containing all the information required by Article 21, will be published and transmitted to the ILO within the time-limits laid down by Article 20.