Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2024, published 113rd ILC session (2025)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Gibraltar

Article 3(1)(a), (b) and (2) of the Convention. Additional functions entrusted to labour inspectors. Control of registration of employment vacancies and issuance of work permits. Further to its previous comment, the Committee notes the Government´s indication that there have been no major legislative or other measures affecting the application of the Convention since the last report. The Committee requests once again that the Government take specific measures to ensure that any functions assigned to labour inspectors to monitor registration of employment vacancies and work permits, or issue penalty notices related to such registration, do not interfere with the main objective of labour inspectors to secure the enforcement of legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers as required under Article 3(1) of the Convention. It also once again requests the Government to provide information on the time and resources spent on labour inspection activities in these areas compared to activities spent on securing the enforcement of legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers.

Articles 10, 14, 16, 20 and 21. Number of labour inspectors and coverage of inspections. Annual labour inspection reports. Notification of industrial accidents and cases of occupational disease to the labour inspectorate. The Committee notes the statistical information provided by the Government, in response to its previous request, on labour inspection activities carried out during the fiscal years 2020–21 to 2022–23. The Committee notes with interest the increase in the number of labour inspectors, from three in 2019 to seventeen in 2022. It notes, however, that despite the increase in the number of visits during the fiscal year 2022–23, the total number of visits remains significantly lower than that observed between 2017 and 2019 (from 495 visits in 2017–18 and 314 in 2018–19 to 9 visits in 2020–21, 36 in 2021–22 and 112 in 2022–23). It also notes that the labour inspectorate identified 16 violations and imposed no fines in the 2020–21 financial year, 2 violations with 2 fines in 2021–22, and 22 violations with no fines in 2022–23. With regard to industrial accidents, the Committee notes that 70 minor and 15 major accidents were reported to the labour inspectorate in 2020–21, 43 minor and 10 major accidents in 2021–22 and 55 minor and 25 major accidents in 2022–23, and finally that no cases of occupational diseases were reported during the same three-year period. The Committee once again requests that the Government provide detailed information on the manner in which labour inspection activities are carried out with respect to occupational safety and health (OSH) issues, as well as statistical information on the number of labour inspections performed in the areas of OSH and working conditions. Noting the report of no occupational diseases over a three-year period, the Committee also requests that the Government provide detailed information on measures taken to ensure the notification of cases of occupational diseases to the labour inspectorate, in accordance with Article 14. Finally, the Committee requests once again that the Government indicate whether annual labour inspection reports containing the statistics provided by the Government are published in accordance with Article 20(2) of the Convention.

Article 12(1) and (2). Right of inspectors to enter freely any workplace liable to inspection. Further to its previous comment, the Committee notes that the Government does not provide any information on the exercise by inspectors in practice of the power to enter freely any workplace liable to inspection. Therefore, the Committee once again requests that the Government provide information on the exercise by inspectors in practice of the powers provided for in section 17(1)(a) and (d) of the Employment Act, including further information on the requirement to obtain written authority from the Director, the modalities for obtaining this authority, including if a separate request is required before each inspection. The Committee also once again requests the Government to indicate whether labour inspectors entrusted with supervising compliance with the Factories Act are empowered to enter freely any workplace liable to inspection, in accordance with Article 12(1) of the Convention.

In addition, the Committee recalls the pending comment regarding the Labour Administration Convention, 1978 (No. 150), adopted by the Committee in 2019, for which the Government will be requested to reply in 2026 in accordance with the reporting cycle.