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

Employment Service Convention, 1948 (No. 88) - Sierra Leone (Ratification: 1961)

1. Contribution of the employment service to employment promotion. ILO technical assistance. In reply to the comments that it has been making for many years, the Committee notes the Government’s statement, contained in a report received in June 2004, indicating that the legislation on employment services has been included on the agenda of the Joint Advisory Commission for discussion. It is the Government’s intention to provide a new mandate to employment services so that they are transformed into dynamic labour market information centres. The new employment services will have to cover not only urban centres but also rural areas and ensure the provision of information, planning and the application of employment policies throughout the country. The Government also states that ILO technical assistance is required to achieve its objectives.

2. Now that security has been re-established and the process of re-establishing public services initiated in the country, the Committee welcomes the fact that the Government is also proposing to strengthen employment services. The Committee recalls that the Office provided support for programmes for the generation of employment opportunities by strengthening employment services for young persons. The Committee hopes that the Government will receive the advice and assistance that can be offered by the competent units of the Office and that it will be in a position to describe in its next report the manner in which the employment service reforms have contributed to securing their essential duty, which is to ensure "the best possible organization of the employment market as an integral part of the national programme for the achievement and maintenance of full employment and the development and use of productive resources" (Article 1 of the Convention), in cooperation with the social partners (Articles 4 and 5). In this respect, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide the statistical information that has been compiled concerning the number of public employment offices established, the number of applications for employment received, the number of vacancies notified and the number of persons placed in employment by such offices (Part IV of the report form).