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

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Isle of Man

Articles 3, 10, 13, 14, 16, 20 and 21 of the Convention. Effectiveness of the work of the labour inspection services and annual labour inspection report. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that the number of health and safety inspectors working at the Health and Safety at Work Inspectorate (HSWI) has decreased (from three inspectors in 2011 to two inspectors in 2013), but that one trainee inspector has been recruited. It also notes that while the number of prohibition notices issued increased from seven for the period April 2010–March 2011 to ten for the period January–May 2013, the number of regular inspection visits decreased (from approximately 500 to 392), the number of reports of industrial accidents increased (from 274 to 320) and the number of prosecutions decreased (from four to one).

The Committee previously noted that labour inspectors at the HSWI are entrusted with various additional tasks, including technical inspections (building safety, machine safety and passenger lift safety, etc.), railway inspections and a number of licensing responsibilities, including the annual safety reviews associated with licences required for the operation of the island’s 17 petrol and gas storage depots. The Committee notes the Government’s indications that, during the period covered by the Government’s report, a very high percentage of the HSWI’s resources were devoted to activities other than safety and health, including complex investigations of fatal accidents at work involving members of the public and service users. In addition, the Government mentions activities to raise awareness among the island’s population on safety issues in relation to a public infrastructure project (gas conversion programme). The Committee finally notes the Government’s indications that the annual reports for 2011/12 and 2012/13 have not yet been finalized, but that a combined report covering the period 2011/13 will be completed by January 2014.

In view of the limited human resources available to the inspectorate and the wide range of activities entrusted to it, the Committee asks the Government to indicate whether any measures are envisaged to strengthen the human resources of the labour inspectorate, based on a needs assessment of the labour inspection services in this respect.

The Committee also requests the Government to continue to provide information on the activities which have been focused on the primary functions of labour inspection, that is the enforcement of legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the supply of technical information and advice to employers and workers concerning the most effective means of complying with these provisions, as well as measures with immediate executory force in the event of imminent danger to the safety or health of workers, and to specify the proportion of these activities in relation to the other tasks assumed by labour inspectors.

Recalling that one of the main purposes of the annual labour inspection report is to serve as a basis for the periodical assessment by the central inspection authority of the adequacy of the available resources in relation to needs, the Committee hopes that the annual inspection reports covering the period 2011/13 will contain information that is as detailed as possible on all the items listed in Article 21(a)–(g) of the Convention, and that it will also include information on cases of occupational diseases, which have not been provided in the annual labour inspection report for 2010/11.

In this regard, the Committee once again draws the Government’s attention to the guidance provided in Part IV of the Labour Inspection Recommendation, 1947 (No. 81), as to the type of information that should be reflected in the annual inspection report.