Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2012, published 102nd ILC session (2013)

Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129) - Kenya (Ratification: 1979)

With reference to its observation, the Committee would also like to raise the following points.

Articles 14, 15, 25, 26 and 27 of the Convention. Lack of human and material resources and appropriate means of transport. Periodical and annual reports. Labour inspection and child labour. The Committee notes that very little progress has been made in addressing the issues relating to the application of the Convention, some of which the Committee has been raising since its ratification by the Government. In relation to the Committee’s previous comments, the Government indicates that it is not in a position to be able to provide specific information on labour inspection activities in agriculture in annual inspection reports, that the limited human resources are a challenge for the conducting of effective occupational safety and health (OSH) inspections in general, and that no specific child labour inspections were carried out in the agricultural sector. Indeed, according to the information gathered by the ILO labour administration and inspection needs assessment conducted at the request of the Government in 2010, there is still no specific budgetary allocation for labour inspection in agriculture and the lack of personnel and means of transport remains an obstacle to labour inspectors discharging their duties in the agricultural sector which, together with the informal economy, is estimated to account for 75 per cent of the working population in the country.

With reference to the information provided by the Government under the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), concerning the development of a database which is expected to improve the system for capturing data and the collection of OSH statistics, the recent review of the current data collection form (LD101) for labour inspection and the commitment expressed by the Government to ensure inter-institutional cooperation between the labour inspection services and other government bodies for the establishment of a register of enterprises, the Committee hopes that the efforts made with a view to improving data collection and the management of labour inspection activities in general will also make it possible to collect separate data on labour inspection activities in the agricultural sector.

Please indicate any steps taken or envisaged to provide the labour inspection services with the budgetary allocations, human and material resources, including transport facilities, required for their effective functioning in the agricultural sector, including a request for international financial cooperation (Articles 14 and 15 of the Convention).

With a view to adequate priority setting and the provision of the relevant financial resources, the Committee once again urges the Government to carry out an objective assessment of the situation based on the identification of the agricultural undertakings liable to inspection (number, activities, size and location) and the workers engaged therein (number and categories). It requests the Government to indicate in its next report any measures adopted in this regard and the results achieved.

The Committee asks the Government to provide information on further progress made to improve data collection, including the progress made with the collection of separate data on labour inspection activities in the agricultural sector. It requests the Government once again to take the necessary measures to publish an annual report on the work of the inspection system in agriculture, either as a separate report or as part of its general annual report, and to provide information on the measures taken in this regard (Articles 13, 25, 26 and 27 of the Convention).

Furthermore, the Committee once again asks the Government to describe the activities by the labour inspectorate concerning child labour in the agricultural sector as well as enforcement activities and the progress achieved.