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

Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129) - Madagascar (Ratification: 1971)

1. Labour inspection activities in agricultural enterprises and annual report. With reference to its observation on the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), which covers industry and commerce, the Committee takes due note that the Government is not in a position to provide activity reports on labour inspection in the agricultural sector covering periods that have long since elapsed. It would nonetheless point out in this connection the importance of providing such reports in future in one of the forms prescribed by of Article 26, paragraph 1, of the Convention within the time limits prescribed by paragraph 2 of the same Article. It would further draw the Government’s attention to the fact that the central authority is required to publish the annual report and that there is a purpose to proper discharge of this obligation. The first object of publication is to make the report available to employers and workers and their representative organizations so that they have an opportunity to express their views on the working of the inspection system and make proposals for its improvement in order both to protect the workers and to enhance the productivity of enterprises. Noting with interest that a subregional seminar on the representativeness of employers’ and workers’ organizations was organized in September 2004 by the Office, the Committee hopes that as an outcome of the seminar labour relations in the agricultural sector will, as anticipated, develop along these lines.

2. Human resources; specific skills and logistical resources of labour inspectors responsible for supervising agricultural enterprises. The Committee also notes with interest that a number of inspectors working in agricultural areas participated in the one day course on labour inspection, organized jointly in September 2004 by the Office and the Ministry of Labour. It nonetheless notes from information available at the Office, that financial and logistics problems together with shortcomings in the legislation, already a serious obstacle to labour inspection in the industrial and commercial sectors, have even more worrying repercussions on supervision of working conditions and hence on the social, economic and health situation of workers in the agricultural sector.

The Committee notes that, in reply to its previous comments, the Government indicates that the courses needed to qualify as a labour inspector in the agricultural sector should shortly be provided at the Ecole nationale de la magistrature, and that the agricultural sector is open to free enterprises in certain parts of the country for the cultivation of grains and horticultural products. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide the following information in its next report: (i) the number of inspectors covered by the abovementioned training and their geographical distribution; (ii) the type and nature of the training; (iii) the number and the activities of the abovementioned free enterprises; (iv) the categories and numbers of the workers employed therein. Please also provide copies of any special legal provisions governing working conditions in free enterprises in the agricultural sector including wages, hours of work, safety and health, and any arrangements for the accommodation of workers and their families and the schooling of their children. Please send copies of legal provisions on supervision of the application of such legislation.

The Committee also requests the Government to provide all available information on labour inspection in agricultural enterprises in general, with reference to the matters raised in the observation on Convention No. 81.

3. Combating child labour in agricultural enterprises. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide information on the role assigned to, and actually assumed by, labour inspectors in the implementation of the ILO/IPEC programme to combat unlawful child labour in the agricultural sector, and on infringements reported and any administrative or legal action taken on them.