Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129) - Belgium (Ratification: 1997)

The Committee takes note of the Government’s report and of the reports of the labour legislation inspection service (1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002) and the medical labour inspectorate (2002).

With reference to its previous comments, the Committee notes that although the Government’s report is general, it contains some information on the labour inspectorate’s activities in the agricultural sector. The Committee notes that employment continues to account for a large share of these activities and that the information on working conditions and protection of workers in the exercise of their occupation are not extensive enough to allow an assessment of the extent to which the Convention is applied. The annual activity reports of the medical labour inspectorate allow no distinction to be drawn regarding the operation of occupational safety and health inspection in the agricultural sector. The Committee therefore requests the Government once again to take measures to ensure that, in accordance with the Convention, information on labour inspection in agricultural enterprises dealing with the subjects set out in Article 27(a) to (g) of the Convention are published either in a separate annual report or as part of a general annual report, and that a copy thereof is sent to the Office by the central inspection authority, as required by Article 26.

The Committee notes that according to the report of the labour legislation inspection service, in the ongoing modernization of social security, development of an electronic social risk declaration has continued under the new working party set up at the end of 2002, to develop a common platform for the various inspection services. The Committee therefore trusts that the implementation of this project will facilitate proper application of the abovementioned Articles of the Convention.