Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2011, published 101st ILC session (2012)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Mauritania (Ratification: 1963)

Continuous failure to apply the Convention. In observations it has been making for many years, the Committee has noted that there is no system of labour inspection within the meaning of the Convention (Article 1), and has asked the Government to take the necessary steps to establish such a system in order to give effect in law and in practice to the obligations deriving from ratification of this instrument. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes that the Government merely repeats the non-statistical information it supplied in its 2009 report regarding improvements in the material resources available to the inspection services (Article 11) and the junior staff of these services, and the training courses attended by labour inspectors, in particular in the context of the ADMITRA project (Article 7). The Committee is bound to note that the Government repeats its statement of 2009 to the effect that 40 labour inspectors were to be recruited shortly (Article 10) and that measures were to be taken to end the unequal treatment suffered by labour inspectors. Labour inspectors are the only public employees not to have been granted the allowance awarded by Decree in 2007 to all other administrative departments. The Government states for the third time that it will rectify the matter and that allowances will be granted to labour inspectors with regard to the specific nature of their duties and in light of their particular status.

The Committee notes that, contrary to what the report indicates, the results of the regional labour inspectorates’ work have not been received by the Office, nor has any information been sent that would enable the Committee to assess the impact of the improvements in the inspectorate’s material resources referred to in the last two reports, or the progress the Government asserts has been made in combating child labour. Furthermore, the Committee observes that the Government has still not sent either the provisional table of the finalized implementing texts of the Labour Code, or a copy of the Act on penalties, as further updated, referred to in the report received in 2009.

Referring to its observation of 2006, in which it took note of a proposal made by the ILO Fact-Finding Mission, that Mauritania call on other United Nations agencies and on interested donors, to mobilize the resources needed to reinforce the labour inspectorate, the Committee urges the Government to take steps, if necessary with financial assistance to be sought in the context of international cooperation and with technical support from the ILO, to establish a labour inspection service that operates on the basis of the provisions of the Convention as regards scope (Articles 1 and 2); duties (Article 3); organization under the supervision of a central authority (Article 4); cooperation with other bodies and with employers and workers or their organizations (Article 5); status and conditions of service of labour inspectors (Article 6); requisite qualifications for recruitment and training (Article 7); criteria for determining the strength of the inspectorate (Article 10); material and logistical resources needed for the performance of their duties (Article 11); inspectors’ prerogatives (Article 12); their powers (Articles 13 and 17); and their obligations (Articles 15, 16 and 19); and also in terms of the central authority’s obligation to publish and to communicate to the ILO an annual report on the work of the inspection services under its control (Article 21).

In order to establish a labour inspection system that meets the social and economic objectives pursued by the Convention, the Committee requests the Government also to ensure, as far as possible, the implementation of the measures described in the general observations the Committee made in 2007 (on the need for effective cooperation between the labour inspectorate and judicial bodies), in 2009 (on the availability of statistics concerning industrial and commercial establishments subject to labour inspection and the number of workers covered, as basic information for an evaluation of the application of the Convention in practice), and in 2010 (on the publication and content of an annual report on the operation of the labour inspection services).

Adoption and implementation of a labour inspection methodology guide. The Committee notes with interest from information available at the Office that the labour inspection methodology guide prepared in the context of the ADMITRA–ILO programme in cooperation with the GIP–INTER international public interest group and adopted in 2010, contains information which is valuable not only for inspectors but for other potential stakeholders in labour inspection (employers, workers and their representative organizations, other Government or private bodies, etc.). The Committee is sure that this is a useful tool for developing a labour inspection system that meets the social and economic objectives pursued by the Convention. While pointing out that the guide extends the role of the inspection services to cover enterprises in the informal economy, the Committee wishes to stress that such development will require significant additional input in terms of human, logistical and material resources.

The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide information on the impact of the labour inspection methodology guide during the period covered by the next report.

The Committee is raising other points in a request addressed directly to the Government.

[The Government is asked to provide full particulars to the Conference at its 101st Session and to report in detail to the present comments in 2012.]