Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Yemen (Ratification: 1976)

The Committee notes the Government’s report for the period from 1 June 2006 to 1 September 2007 and the evaluation report on the 2006 Plan of the Department of Industrial Relations, including the budget for that year.

Articles 19, 20 and 21 of the Convention. The Committee’s follow-up of the content of labour inspection reports as tools for evaluating and improving the operation of the inspectorate. In the comments that it has been making for nearly 20 years, the Committee has encouraged the Government to take the necessary steps to publish and send to the ILO an annual inspection report containing in particular, the information required on the matters listed in Article 21 of the Convention. In the dialogue that it has held with the Government over these years, the Committee has noted that despite the political and economic difficulties it has had to cope with, the Government has done its utmost to send available information, largely in the form of statistical tables on some of the subjects covered by the Convention pertaining to one or other geographical or administrative division of the country. The Government has repeatedly stated, however, that the labour inspectorate’s lack of financial resources was the cause of the failure to publish an annual report as required by the Convention. In 1994, the Committee noted with interest an annual report on the work of the inspection services for an earlier period, but pointed out that it lacked information essential to an assessment of the extent to which the labour inspection system actually covers the duties that have to be discharged (for example, the number of workplaces liable to inspection and the number of workers employed therein). It also noted that the Government had obtained technical assistance from the ILO to restructure and reorganize the Ministry of Labour in the context of the country’s reunification, and expressed the hope that application of the Convention would improve as a result. In 1995, however, the Committee observed that the Government was having difficulty in providing the labour inspectorate with sufficient well-qualified human resources and the material and logistical resources it needed to carry out its functions.

The Government nonetheless stated that it would shortly be sending an inspection report for 1994. Although this proved impossible, the Government continued to send statistical tables covering in part some of the subjects listed in Article 21. In a direct request sent to the Government in 2000, the Committee again pointed out the need to know the number of industrial and commercial establishments liable to inspection, the activities they carry on and the number of workers they employ, as a basis for determining the inspectorate’s needs in terms of human and material resources. It also asked the Government also to send information on developments in the legislation affecting the organization and operation of the labour inspectorate and the status and conditions of work of labour inspection officials.

In its observation of 2004, the Committee took note of the Government’s efforts to gradually reinforce the labour inspection system, in particular by including in the Labour Code new provisions setting out the duties and powers of labour inspectors, and to equip the inspection services with computer hardware with a view to setting up a countrywide network for exchanging information and to providing the central administration with the means to monitor compliance with the law in workplaces on a permanent basis. The Committee accordingly considered that it should henceforth be possible for an annual inspection report to be drawn up and expressed the hope that such a report would shortly be published. It also welcomed the fact that an inventory of workplaces liable to inspection had been undertaken in Sanaa and hoped that such an inventory would also be undertaken for all other parts of the country, thus allowing an objective evaluation of the coverage of the inspection services with a view to determining what needed to be done in order to improve them gradually.

In its observation of 2006, the Committee continued to monitor progress reported by the Government in the development and efficiency of the statistical system and sought information on the action taken by the Government further to its commitment to send the Office a report by the General Administration of the Labour Inspectorate showing inspections by workplace, the number of workers by enterprise, the number of infringements reported and the penalties and other measures applied. It nonetheless noted that, according to the Government, owing to a lack of resources the General Administration had no computers; that eight governorates had no inspection service because there was no economic activity; and that the inspections recorded concerned only the capital and the governorate of Hamdramaout because the other governorates had not sent in statistics. The Committee asked the Government to report on legislative developments announced previously concerned with ILO technical assistance and the participation of the social partners. In its report received in September 2007, the Government provides information on the content of the statistics by enterprise (number of workers broken down between Yemeni and non-Yemeni, situation at the workplace at the time of the inspection, type of infringement of the provisions of the Labour Code and action taken by the labour inspectorate) and states that these data are published in an annual report of the General Department of Labour Inspection. The Government indicates, however, that the draft revision of the Labour Code is still under consideration by the social partners, and again requests technical assistance in undertaking the necessary amendments. A report issued by the ILO’s Beirut Office on a mission carried out from 9 to 14 October 2008 shows that the revision of the Labour Code should be completed before the end of the year.

The Committee notes that the Department of Industrial Relations’ annual assessment report for 2006, which the Government sent with its report for 2007, contains information and statistics on the activities of numerous labour agencies, including the labour inspectorate, in ten of the country’s 21 governorates. The Committee notes, however, that according to the introduction to the report, the labour administration is weak, disorganized and operates in a routine manner on a shoestring budget. The report launches an urgent appeal to the Minister of Social Affairs and Labour to give labour issues the importance they deserve and to implement the necessary measures, particularly financial measures, to stop the exodus of labour administration managers at a time when such heavy demands are being made of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour.

Implementing the provisions of the Convention and reinforcing the labour inspection system by launching a Decent Work Country Programme (DWCP). The Committee notes with interest that a DWCP, prepared in cooperation with the Government, the social partners and the ILO, and launched in August 2008, makes the establishment of an efficient labour inspection system a priority. A tripartite committee should soon be set up to monitor the implementation of the programme and a national working group appointed by the Minister of Social Affairs and Labour to ensure coordination with the ILO. The DWCP provides, inter alia, for ILO technical assistance in setting up a tripartite audit and formulating and implementing a national action plan that takes due account of the provisions of the Conventions on labour inspection and health and safety. The programme will also seek to promote the adoption of modern inspection practices that target prevention and more efficient integration of labour inspection in other programmes, focusing on the efforts that will be needed in those areas of labour inspection that target the worst forms of child labour. The Committee also notes with interest that one of the roles assigned to the ILO will be to promote the recruitment and training of women inspectors with a view to proper supervision of the conditions of work of women workers. The Committee would be grateful if in its next report the Government would provide information on all progress made, particularly through the implementation of the DWCP for 2008–10, in establishing and operating a labour inspection system in industrial and commercial enterprises that is consistent with the principles laid down in the Convention and the guidance provided in the corresponding Recommendation No. 81. Such information should cover the legislative amendments that the Committee has recommended in its comments since the ratification of the Convention, the number and qualifications of men and women labour inspectors (Articles 8, 10 and 21(b)); their status and conditions of service (Article 6); the material resources, including computers, facilities and means of transport needed for the performance of their duties (Article 11); the machinery set up by the central inspection authority for the control and supervision of all the services for which it is responsible, including compliance by labour inspectors with their obligation to report on their work in the areas of prevention and the enforcement of legislation on conditions of work and the protection of workers while engaged in their work (Articles 4 and 19); measures to secure effective cooperation between the labour inspection services and other public or private institutions and bodies engaged in similar work, including judicial bodies, so as to enlist their support for the work of the labour inspectorate (Article 5(a)); and measures for effective collaboration between labour inspectors and employers and workers (Article 5(b) and Part II of Recommendation No. 81).

The Committee hopes that, in view of the progress already made in compiling certain statistics that are of use in assessing the operation of the labour inspection system, the Government will be in a position to take the necessary steps to ensure that an annual inspection report is published and sent to the ILO within the time limits set by Article 20 of the Convention, containing the information required by Article 21(a) to (g). So that the information is useful to the central inspection authority in defining priorities for action in collaboration with the social partners and other interested parties while taking into account the financial resources available under the national budget, the Committee invites the Government to follow the guidance given in Recommendation No. 81 (Part IV) on the level of detail that is appropriate.