Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2013, published 103rd ILC session (2014)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Denmark (Ratification: 1958)

Article 3(2) of the Convention. Additional duties entrusted to labour inspectors. The Committee notes the Government’s indications in its report that the Danish Working Environment Authority (WEA) has organized special inspections in 2012, together with the police and the tax authorities targeted at so called “social dumping”. According to the Government’s indications in its report provided on the application of the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129), the term social dumping is used to describe the operation of foreign companies in the country, which do not comply with national labour legislation and do not provide working conditions which meet the national standards, or employ foreign workers without the required residence permits.

Furthermore, the Committee notes the information provided on the website of the WEA, according to which two joint control activities of the WEA, the police and tax authorities have been carried out in 2013, which were aimed at combating social dumping. It further notes from the same source that it was envisaged to conduct eight nationwide, and 24 regional activities against social dumping in 2013. The Committee notes that during these actions, the police detained three third-country nationals, which were found to be working in an irregular situation. According to the Government, further investigation will be conducted and charges brought against the employer. These three foreigners were also accused of not having been in possession of the necessary identity papers.

The Committee would like to draw the Government’s attention to paragraphs 75–78 of its General Survey of 2006 on labour inspection, where the Committee emphasized that the primary duty of labour inspectors is to secure the enforcement of the legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers and not to enforce immigration law, and that Convention No. 81 does not contain any provision suggesting that any workers be excluded from the protection afforded by labour inspection on account of their irregular employment status. To be compatible with the protective function of labour inspection, the verification of the legality of employment should have as its corollary the reinstatement of the statutory rights of all workers. Furthermore, since the human and other resources available to labour inspectorates are not unlimited, the major role sometimes assigned to labour inspectors in the area of illegal employment would appear to entail a proportionate decrease in inspection of conditions of work.

The Committee asks the Government to provide further details on the number, scope, nature and method of these activities, including information on the detected violations and the legal provisions concerned as well as the legal proceedings initiated, remedies applied and sanctions imposed, and the impact of these activities on the enforcement of legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers.

In particular, the Committee requests the Government to describe the role of the labour inspectorate and the justice system in ensuring the enforcement of the employers’ obligations with regard to the rights of foreign workers in an irregular situation, such as the payment of wages and social security benefits for the period of their effective employment relationship, especially in cases where such workers are liable to expulsion from the country.

It asks the Government to provide information on the number of cases where workers found in an irregular situation have been granted their due rights, and to provide copies of relevant decisions.