Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2005, published 95th ILC session (2006)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Poland (Ratification: 1995)

The Committee refers the Government to its observation and also requests it to provide information on the following points in its next report.

1. Cooperation with inspection services in the European Union. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the implementation and the results of the cooperation provided for in section 11(d) of the 1981 National Labour Inspectorate Act, as amended by the Act of 16 February 2005.

2. Occupational safety and health and penalties. The Committee notes from the executive summary of the Report of the National Labour Inspectorate on its activity in 2004 that the level of protection of occupational health and safety is still lower than expected and that, despite progress, the equipment used at workplaces, working conditions and the legislation are still below European Union standards. It also notes the information that competition and pressure on costs are the cause of lower spending on occupational safety and health. The above summary also states that urgent reform of the legislation is needed to increase the amounts of fines for breach of labour legislation so as to provide labour inspectors with means enabling them to enforce the law more effectively. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether measures have been taken or are envisaged to review the amounts of fines for breach of the labour law to ensure that they are dissuasive. The Government is asked to provide copies of any relevant texts (Article 3, paragraph 1(a), and Article 18 of the Convention).

3. Structure of the inspectorate. The Committee notes the information provided under the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129), to the effect that there has been structural change in the national labour inspectorate and in the district inspectorates. It would be grateful if the Government would provide detailed information on such change and its effects on the effectiveness of the inspectorate (Article 4).

4. Powers of injunction of labour inspectors. The Committee notes with interest that section 21 of the Act of 6 March 1981 on the National Labour Inspectorate, as amended by the Act of 21 April 2005, authorizes labour inspectors to issue orders mentioned in the same section, regardless of the inspector’s territorial competence. The Committee further notes that under the same provision, inspectors may notify to the director of an establishment a decision ordering elimination of the violation of the occupational safety and health legislation within the prescribed time or a decision to halt work when the violation constitutes a direct danger to the life or health of employees or others working in the establishment, where execution of the decision does not require a decision by the employer and where it would otherwise be impossible to avoid endangering the life or health of the employees. The Committee asks the Government to send in its next report all available information on the effect of these changes in practice (Article 13).

5. Labour inspection and child labour. The Committee notes that since May 2004 labour inspectors have been responsible for issuing and withdrawing permits for the execution of work or other paid tasks by young persons over 16 years of age. The Committee notes the information on the labour inspectorates’ activities in this area for 2004, and requests the Government to continue to provide detailed information on the supervisory and other activities of the inspectorate that pertain to minimum age for admission to employment or work, including data on contraventions reported and the penalties imposed.

6. Occupational risk prevention and inspection methods. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would state whether it has acted on, or intends to act on, the recommendations in the report of the National Labour Inspectorate for 2004 that concern the development of occupational risk prevention programmes that take account of the regions’ specific features and information and education campaigns directed in particular at the identification and prevention of the most common risk factors. It also notes from the same document that inspection methods are to be improved, and requests the Government to describe any developments in this regard, specifying how the effectiveness of inspection has been, or is expected to be, affected.