Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Congo (Ratification: 1999)

The Committee notes with regret 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:

The Committee notes the Government’s first report received in June 2006. It also notes the legislation available at the Office, particularly Decree No. 2003-219 of 21 August 2003 on the powers and organization of the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security; Act No. 45-75 of 15 March 1975, issuing the Labour Code, as amended by Act No. 6-96 of 6 March 1996; Order No. 9036 of 10 December 1986, on general safety and health measures applying to industrial, commercial, agricultural and forestry enterprises and other administrative establishments. The Committee requests the Government to provide copies of any provisions on labour inspection adopted pursuant to the abovementioned texts.

Article 3, paragraph 1, of the Convention. The Committee notes that according to sections 150 and 149(b) and (c) of the Labour Code, labour inspectors are responsible for the supervision of laws and regulations on the workers’ conditions, labour relations, employment and the placement of workers, occupational training and further training, social welfare, and for dispensing advice and recommendations to employers and workers. The Committee requests the Government to state whether the legislation also empowers inspectors – and, if so, how – to bring to the attention of the competent authority defects or abuses not specifically covered by existing legal provisions ((c)).

Article 4. The Committee notes that according to section 150 of the Labour Code, labour inspection and the supervision of labour law are the responsibility of the General Directorate of Labour and Social Welfare and that, pursuant to section 10 of abovementioned Decree No. 2003-219, the General Directorate of Labour and Social Welfare is regulated by specific regulations. The Government is asked to keep the Office informed of the adoption of any relevant texts, to send a copy of them and to provide an organization chart of the labour inspectorate.

Article 5(a) and (b). Noting that Decree No. 2000-29 of 17 March 2000 established a National Technical Tripartite Committee on occupational safety and health and the prevention of occupational risks, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide information on the matters dealt with by the abovementioned committee and on its operation in so far as these relate to the provisions of the Convention that address supervision of occupational health and safety.

The Committee also requests the Government to provide information and any available texts on measures such as the ones proposed in Part II of Recommendation No. 81, which supplements the Convention, that the Government has taken to encourage cooperation between the inspection services and employers or their representatives in implementing the provisions of the Convention.

Articles 6 and 7. The Committee requests the Government to provide the texts regulating the status and conditions of service of labour inspection staff, together with detailed information on the content and operation of the training courses held for labour inspectors taking up their duties, and on the content of seminars, courses and other training activities that have been or will be organized for them in the course of their employment.

Article 8. Please indicate the proportion of women working at each level of the labour inspectorate and specify whether special duties are assigned to men and women inspectors.

Articles 10 and 21. While noting the information that the labour inspectorate has an inspection staff (inspectors and controllers) of 123 performing supervisory duties in the country’s 11 departmental directorates, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate their geographical distribution and, if possible, the number of industrial and commercial establishments subject to their inspection and the number of workers employed in them.

The Committee stresses the importance of making available the fullest possible information on each of these subjects so that both the national authorities and the ILO’s supervisory bodies can assess the effectiveness of the labour inspection system.

Articles 11 and 16 of the Convention and Part IV of the report form. The Committee has learned that there are economic obstacles to the application of the above provisions. It nonetheless wishes to point out that these provisions set requirements that are essential to labour inspectors’ performance of their duties in pursuit of the Convention’s economic and social objectives. Consequently, it strongly encourages the Government to take steps to identify the needs for this purpose. Such measures could initially include compiling – and updating from time to time – a register of establishments subject to inspection, examining the characteristics of the activities carried out in these establishments (hazards, arduousness, shift work, working hours, geographical location vis-à-vis inspection offices, etc.), identifying the categories of workers employed in them and the protection they should receive (skilled and unskilled workers; women; young people and other categories of vulnerable workers). Relevant data would serve as a basis for determining the share of the national budget that should be earmarked for the labour inspectorate, taking into account the order of priorities dictated by the country’s general economic situation, but not underestimating the impact an effective labour inspection service has on that situation. Additionally, the Committee stresses to the Government that it can call on the ILO for technical assistance for the implementation of the provisions of the Convention as well as to obtain economic assistance in the framework of international financial and economic cooperation on the basis of relevant data. The Committee hopes that in its next report the Government will be in a position to provide information on the measures taken in light of the foregoing, on progress made and on the difficulties encountered.

Article 12, paragraph 1(a) and (b). The Committee notes that under section 3 of the Labour Code, any public or private natural or legal person employing one or more wage earners shall be treated as an enterprise and governed by the provisions of the Code. It recalls that Articles 2 and 23 of the Convention provide that the system of labour inspection shall apply to all industrial and commercial undertakings in respect of which legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers while engaged in their work are enforceable by labour inspectors. The Committee wishes to point out that, in order to ensure effective enforcement of legislation in workplaces liable to inspection, labour inspectors’ right of free entry to such workplaces needs to be extended and to include entry at night, contrary to the provisions of the legislation (sections 154-1 and 154-2 of Act No. 6-96 of 6 March 1996; sections 138 to 140 of the Labour Code and sections 86–89 of Order No. 9036 of 10 December 1986). The Government is asked to take steps, in the light of the Committee’s comments on this matter in its General Survey of 1985 on labour inspection (paragraphs 157 ff.), to supplement its legislation in order to establish inspectors’ right of free entry, drawing a distinction between workplaces liable to inspection and other premises, as does Article 12, paragraph 1(a) and (b). The Committee requests the Government to keep the ILO informed of any progress towards this end and to provide any relevant texts.

Article 12, paragraph 1(c)(iii). The Committee requests the Government to ensure that labour inspectors are authorized to enforce the posting of notices required by the legal provisions, and to inform the Office of measures taken to this end.

Article 12, paragraph 2. Recalling that under this provision labour inspectors may refrain from informing the employer or his representative of their presence if they consider that this may be prejudicial to the performance of their duties, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would ensure that section 155(a) of the Labour Code is revised and supplemented in order to give full effect to this provision.

Article 13, paragraph 2(b). The Committee requests the Government to provide information and any texts on the manner in which effect is given, in law and in practice, to this provision, under which labour inspectors should have the right to make or to have made orders with immediate executory force in the event of imminent danger to the health or safety of the workers.

Article 17. This Article establishes the general rule that, other than in the exceptional cases allowed by law, immediate legal proceedings are to be taken against persons who violate the legislation prescribed by the Convention. However, the rule has some flexibility by the discretion that labour inspectors must be given resort to educational or preventive measures instead of such proceedings. Nevertheless, the national legislation (sections 154-1 and 154-2 of Act No. 6 96 of 6 March 1996; sections 138 to 140 of the Labour Code and sections 86–89 of Order No. 9036 of 10 December 1986), requires inspectors to give prior notice of legal action in all cases. The Committee therefore requests the Government to take the necessary steps to bring the legislation into the Convention on this point.

Article 18. Noting the penalties established in sections 251 to 260 of the Labour Code, the Committee wishes to stress, as it did in paragraph 263 of its General Survey of 1985 on labour inspection, that it is essential for the effectiveness of inspection services that penalties should be fixed at a sufficiently high level to have a dissuasive effect and that where the penalty consists of a fine, the rate of the fine should be periodically reviewed. The Committee hopes that the Government will not fail to take the necessary steps to ensure that monetary penalties remain dissuasive despite present or future monetary fluctuations, in particular by revising them through regulations.

Article 19. The Government is asked to provide copies of the departmental directorates’ activity reports, announced by the Government in its report.

Articles 20 and 21. The Committee requests the Government to indicate the measures taken or envisaged to secure publication and transmission by the central inspection authority to the ILO of an annual report on the work of the inspection services containing the information required on each of the items listed in Article 21(a)–(g) within the time limit prescribed by Article 20.