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

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Singapore (Ratification: 1965)

Article 3(2) of the Convention. Additional functions entrusted to labour inspectors. The Committee notes that, according to the Government, labour inspections are carried out irrespective of nationality and that employers engaging workers covered under the Employment Act are required to discharge their obligations with regard to the statutory rights of foreign workers. The Government also indicates that foreign workers “who are not complicit” in their illegal employment may seek recourse for salary arrears and other benefits. The Committee reminds the Government that, in accordance with Article 3(2) of the Convention, any further duties which may be entrusted to labour inspectors shall not be such as to interfere with the effective discharge of their primary duties, or to prejudice in any way the authority and impartiality which are necessary to inspectors in their relations with employers and workers. Furthermore, the Committee refers to paragraphs 75–78 of its 2006 General Survey on labour inspection, in which it emphasized, in relation to the assignment to labour inspectors of the task of supervising the legality of employment and prosecuting violations, including migrant workers in an irregular situation, 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 all workers and not to enforce immigration law, and that the Convention does not contain any provision suggesting that any worker be excluded from the protection afforded on account of their irregular employment status. The Committee reminds the Government that the function of verifying the legality of employment should have as its corollary the reinstatement of the statutory rights of all the workers if it is to be compatible with the objective of labour inspection, which is to protect the rights and interests of all workers and to improve their working conditions. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on how it ensures the discharge of employers’ obligations with regard to the statutory rights of foreign workers illegally employed, regardless of whether or not they are aware of their employment status, such as the payment of wages and any other benefits owed for the work performed in the framework of their employment relationship, including where the workers in question are liable to expulsion or after they have left the country.

Furthermore, the Committee asks the Government to provide information on the time and resources the labour inspectorate spends on activities in the area of irregular work in relation to activities spends on securing the enforcement of legal provisions relating to other areas (such as provisions relating to working hours, wages, safety and health, child labour, etc.), and to continue providing relevant information on the number of inspections, violations found and penalties imposed, categorized according to the legal provisions to which they relate.

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