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

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

Articles 3(1)(a) and (b), 5(b) and 11 of the Convention. Labour inspection activities in the area of occupational safety and health (OSH). The Committee notes with interest the information on the various preventive activities by the labour inspectorate in the area of OSH. In this regard, the Committee notes: (i) the development of tailor-made and in-company trainings in cooperation with three private training institutes, including for businesses working with hoisting cranes; (ii) the preparation and envisaged implementation of the safety project “System for Measurement and Improvement of Productivity” (SYMAPRO) in the enterprise with the highest incidence of occupational accidents in the gold-mining sector; and (iii) the envisaged development of an OSH training manual and a quick-reference book for the small-scale and informal gold-mining sector in the context of a roadmap for the improvement of OSH in this sector, in cooperation with the ILO Decent Work Team and Country Office for the Caribbean. The Committee also notes the Government’s announcement of other envisaged measures in this regard, including: (i) courses for OSH training at the senior level of enterprises, for which applications have already been made by businesses operating in the industrial, mining and construction sector; (ii) the development of an OSH logbook; and (iii) the setting up of an OSH institute.

According to the Government, following the provision of OSH courses, some small and medium-sized enterprises, including in the construction, agricultural and industrial sector, are now able to identify and analyse risks, and the number of trained OSH officers at the medium level of enterprises has increased. Furthermore, the implementation of the SYMAPRO project should lead to a reduction of 50 per cent of the total number of industrial accidents in the gold-mining sector. The Committee notes from the statistical information on industrial accidents provided by the Government with its report, that there seems to be a downward trend in the total number of occupational accidents (from 1,301 cases in 2010 to 1,176 cases in 2012), as well as in the number of occupational accidents in agriculture (from 460 cases in 2010 to 352 cases in 2012). However, there seems to be no significant change in the number of occupational accidents in the construction sector (169 cases in 2010 and 168 cases in 2012), in relation to which the Committee had noted, in its last comment under the Safety Provisions (Building) Convention, 1937 (No. 62), a high increase of deaths and workplace accidents between 2007 and 2008. Moreover, the number of industrial accidents in the mining sector seems to have further increased (from 44 cases in 2010 to 57 cases in 2012).

Finally, the Committee welcomes inspection programmes concerning the use by companies of hazardous substances, as well as the use of hoisting equipment. The Committee asks the Government to continue providing information on the training programmes carried out (including on the number of workplaces and employers who have benefited from such training in the various sectors), as well as on the other measures envisaged with a view to reducing the number of occupational accidents and diseases.

Please provide any relevant documents in this regard and continue to provide statistical data that might serve to assess the situation, including information on the number of cases of occupational diseases and fatal accidents, which the Government has not communicated with its current report.

Article 14. Notification to the labour inspectorate of cases of occupational diseases. The Committee notes the Government’s indications in its report under the present Convention that the modernization of the labour legislation includes plans to reform the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSH Act) and that the revision of the Decree on Labour Inspection has already been approved by the tripartite Labour Advisory Board. The Committee notes the Government’s indications that, in the framework of these legislative reforms, the issues previously raised by the Committee under Article 14 (notification to the labour inspectorate of cases of occupational diseases) and Article 15(b) (professional secrecy of labour inspectors after leaving the inspection services) of the Convention will be taken into account. Recalling that for many years the Government has announced legislative amendments to address the above issues, the Committee expresses the firm hope that the Government will provide information on any concrete steps taken in this respect in its next report due in 2016, and provide copies of any draft provisions or any adopted texts, together with all relevant documents (administrative orders, circulars, etc.).

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