Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2014, published 104th ILC session (2015)

Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129) - Malawi (Ratification: 1971)

The Committee notes that the Government’s report has not been received. It must therefore repeat its previous comments.

Repetition

The Committee refers to its comments under the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81), in so far as they concern the application of the present Convention.

Article 7 of the Convention. Need to re-establish a central authority entrusted with control and supervisory powers over the labour inspection system in agriculture. The Committee notes the information already provided by the Government in its report under Convention No. 81, according to which a Chief Labour Officer has recently been appointed to head and coordinate the Inspectorate Department at the Ministry of Labour. According to the Government, this appointment has been made in response to the recommendations made following an ILO technical assistance mission in 2006 (labour inspection audit 2006). The Committee refers to its previous observations made under Conventions Nos 81 and 129, particularly the need to re-establish a central labour inspection authority entrusted with the setting of annual targets and the monitoring of performance throughout the structures of the labour inspectorate, as well as the determination of the needs in terms of financial and material resources with a view to their proper operation. It further recalls that the recommendations in the labour inspection audit 2006 included the need to strengthen the labour inspection system in agricultural undertakings with a view to securing decent work in the most attractive sector in the country for foreign investments.

Referring to its reiterated requests in this regard and its comments under Convention No. 81, the Committee asks the Government, once again, to provide details of the measures announced as a follow-up to the recommendations in the labour inspection audit 2006, and to keep the ILO informed of any measures envisaged or taken for their implementation, in so far as they relate to labour inspection in agriculture.

The Committee also once again asks the Government to adopt all measures that are essential to securing a labour inspection system in agriculture under the supervision and control of the central authority that is provided with human resources and material conditions of work adapted to the specific needs of the agricultural sector; and to provide information on any developments in this regard.

Articles 26 and 27. Annual report on labour inspection activities. While observing that the Government has again not communicated an annual report or any statistics on the activities of the labour inspectorate in agriculture, the Committee notes that, according to the Government, the annual labour inspection report will soon be published and communicated to the ILO, and that this will contain information on the work of the labour inspectorate in agriculture. The Committee requests the Government to make every effort to enable the central labour authority to publish and communicate an annual labour inspection report covering labour inspection in agriculture and to indicate the measures taken in this regard. It requests the Government in any event to provide with its next report statistical information that is as detailed as possible (agricultural workplaces liable to inspection, number of inspections therein, infringements detected and the legal provisions to which they relate, etc.).

Labour inspection activities targeting child labour. The Committee notes that, according to the Child Labour National Action Plan of the Ministry of Labour for 2009–16 and communicated with the Government’s report under the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), an estimated 1.4 million children were involved in child labour in Malawi, with 52 per cent working in the agricultural sector. The Committee asks the Government, once again, to provide information on inspection activities in the area of combating child labour.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the near future.