Chapter V. Means of action available to the labour inspection services

204. As the Committee has pointed out on previous occasions, the principal means by which action in the field of labour inspection is carried out are: the inspection staff (Endnote 1) (who must be sufficiently numerous and so composed and managed as to be able to cope with the complex technologies used in modern economic activities) and the material facilities placed at their disposal, including transport, equipment and information facilities, as appropriate. These are the factors which enable inspection visits to be made as frequently and as effectively as necessary to make the protection of workers a reality.

205. The Committee attaches great importance to this subject on which it has attempted, through its observations, direct requests and, on occasion, through direct contacts, to pursue a constructive dialogue over the years with many governments which have ratified the relevant Conventions. The Committee is also aware of the importance in this connection of other forms of ILO action, such as research, tripartite discussion and technical co-operation; these may provide significant help to governments in appreciating the nature and magnitude of the problems involved and in seeking solutions to them with the co-operation of employers and workers and their respective organisations.

206. Indeed, the practical effectiveness of labour inspection cannot be achieved through legislation alone. The Committee is fully aware that, year after year, effective action has to be taken, without which even the best labour inspection laws may encounter serious problems of implementation in practice or, at worst, remain a dead letter. Furthermore, the effectiveness of national labour inspection activities is in turn a prerequisite for effective implementation of other international labour standards as reflected in national practice.

207. As in the past, information on the size of the labour inspection staff is available for several of the countries covered by this survey; somewhat less information is available on the extent of their activities and less still on the material means and resources of the inspectorates. However, in view of broad geographical distribution of these countries and their greatly varying economic and social conditions, no very significant purpose could be served by merely comparing the bare figures. The figures have to be seen in relation to the number geographical distribution, compliance rating and potential exposure to risk of undertakings liable to inspection, to the number of workers they employ and possibly to the degree of participation by management and labour in ensuring the daily observance of the relevant social and technical standards. Information on such factors which is available to the Committee differs considerably from one case to another, and sometimes the necessary statistical basis is lacking.

208. None the less, the Committee has endeavoured over a number of years to seek such practical information of this kind as would enable it better to appreciate in the circumstances of each case the adequacy of the size of the labour inspection staff, and also to understand the problems involved in their operations. Thanks to the co-operation of a number of governments, and also of employers' and workers' organisations which at various times provided comments, the Committee has been able either to comment upon or to note, on certain occasions, the practical information and/or explanations received as a result of these endeavours. (Endnote 2)

209. Moreover, the Committee is glad to note with great interest a development which started in the late seventies within the framework of the ILO. A number of countries have recently asked the ILO as a tripartite organisation to undertake, in co-operation with their own tripartite constituencies, studies of the effectiveness of national labour inspection systems. Tripartite missions on labour inspection have already been carried out in several countries (Endnote 3) under this programme. Indeed, the Committee believes, on the one hand, that the tripartite discussion and evaluation which occur on such occasions can only enhance the solution of whatever problems are met in operating national labour inspection systems, while, on the other hand, the findings of such missions (and the ensuing discussion at tripartite meetings which are planned for participating countries) will also promote better knowledge and understanding of the experiences of various countries. On both accounts, these missions are likely to help in the general orientation of the Committee's own efforts.

210. Notwithstanding these developments, the Committee is concerned to note that, in recent years, the overall situation of labour inspection as regards its means of action seems to have deteriorated in various countries.

I. Size of the labour inspection staff

211. Article 10 of Convention No. 81 provides that the number of labour inspections shall be determined with due regard for certain parameters (importance of inspection duties; number, nature and size of workplaces; number of workers employed therein; number and complexity of legal provisions; material means placed at the disposal of inspectors; practical conditions of inspection visits). Similar provisions are contained in Article 14 of Convention No. 129. The Committee is seriously concerned at the frequent staff shortages or even decreases in labour inspectorates. The poorer countries, for instance, have traditionally been unable to maintain a labour inspection establishment of adequate size and composition owing to shortages of both funds and qualified candidates. In some of the richer countries, recent cuts in public service expenditures have generally produced corresponding cuts in labour inspection establishments also. (Endnote 4) In other countries, both industrialised and industrialising, a certain number of existing funded posts (limited though these might already be) have gone chronically unfilled. In other cases still, a larger intake of inexperienced staff (e.g. unemployed youth, students, secondments from police ranks) has been used inadequately to make up for the lack of more highly qualified inspectors. It is also not infrequent for the competent authorities to experience difficulties in redeploying existing staff who, following well established administrative traditions or as a result of administrative reform, may find themselves scattered among a variety of inspecting bodies with different fields of competence. In other cases the growth, in both size and complexity of economic activities, has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in labour inspection staff. Unfortunately the deployment of labour inspection staff has sometimes been affected by war, (Endnote 5) too.

212. The seriousness and complexity of this problem have not escaped the Committee's attention. These have been evident from information reported -- in certain cases, by some governments themselves -- under article 19 or article 22 reporting procedures. It is also apparent from certain activity reports published annually by central labour inspection authorities. In several cases, where countries have ratified Conventions Nos. 81 or 129, such shortages and the reasons for them have been the subject of dialogue between the Committee and the governments concerned. (Endnote 6) Furthermore, shortages of staff and resources for labour inspection have been pointed out by a number of regional studies or seminars and meetings, (Endnote 7) some of them under ILO auspices, or in various ILO mission reports.

213. Against this discouraging background, the Committee is glad, however, to be able to point out that there have been improvements in the staffing of labour inspection services in certain countries. When cases of progress of this nature have occurred following direct requests or observations previously made by the Committee, the Committee has been able to note them, (Endnote 8) generally asking the governments concerned to continue indicating new measures taken or envisaged to increase the size of the labour inspectorate.

214. The Committee would like to make three remarks on this important general question. Firstly, the case of countries which, because of their state of development and resources, chronically face nearly insurmountable difficulties in the staffing of their labour inspection services, continues to preoccupy the Committee. Here it can only express the hope that the governments concerned will continue untiringly in their efforts to improve the situation gradually and that they may also benefit from international co-operation to that end. Secondly, where current shortages of staff or other resources for labour inspection can be remedied, the Committee ventures to hope that governments will proceed to do so and that employers' and workers' organisations will give this objective their support as may be required. Thirdly, the Committee wonders whether general civil service cuts, in countries where they do occur, must inevitably include cuts in labour inspectorates; it hopes that the economic and social value of this institution, as well as the social cost of reducing its effectiveness, will be given thorough and continuing consideration by all parties concerned.

215. However, the Committee is also aware that a situation may occur where although a labour inspection establishment may have reached a reasonably adequate size in the general opinion, it may not continue to keep pace with the growth of economic activity or employment and their technological complexity. Therefore, problems of resource management for inspection also arise, which the Committee will discuss further on in this chapter. In this connection instances have been noted with interest where management and labour have taken the initiative -- in close co-operation with, and under the supervision and guidance of, labour inspection services -- to train and organise personnel at the level of the undertaking to perform tasks which foreshadow, extend or enhance the work of official inspectors. (Endnote 9) However, the idea expressed in the following quotation from the report of an ILO tripartite mission should be not lost sight of:

The influence of those directly concerned upon increasing safety performance in the plant and upon achieving the actual betterment of the workplace is undeniable. It can produce very valuable results in a very large number of workplaces, and we would not want to diminish its importance in any way. However, we have to point out that it is also an aspect of human nature that those that live every day with a certain physical danger facing them may, with time, become less aware of its existence or of its seriousness, or "home blind" ... This is one reason why, in some cases, a labour inspection coming from the outside is necessary to recognise the occupational hazard and point it out. (Endnote 10)

II. Composition of staff

216. Regarding the composition of labour inspection staff, mention should first be made of the situation respecting the provisions of Article 8 of Convention No. 81 and of Article 10 of Convention No. 129, which require that both men and women be eligible for appointment to the inspection staff and that, where necessary, special duties may be assigned to men and women inspectors. As a general principle, virtually all governments report that, in law, women as well as men are entitled to join the labour inspection staff. While many governments also report that in fact a number of women have done so, a few still point out that there do not happen (Endnote 11) to be women in the present complement of their labour inspectorates, while others are silent on this point. All in all, significant progress appears to have occurred during the last couple of decades, in the sense that absolute exclusion of women from labour inspectorates seems to have virtually ceased. Regarding assignment to special duties, on the other hand, the legislation and practice of many countries for which information is available (including some which report relatively large numbers of women in labour inspection services) seem, generally speaking, to make no distinction between women and men. (Endnote 12) In some countries, however, the supervision of special acts, e.g. maternity protection Acts (Endnote 13) may be especially entrusted to women, or sometimes certain inspection tasks connected with social or welfare matters or other special duties, (Endnote 14) as the case may be.

217. The Committee wishes to draw the attention of governments to the general principle that maintaining an adequate presence of women in the labour inspection staff is even more necessary with the current growth of women's participation in the labour force and the need for inspection staff who are duly sensitive to the problem of women workers.

218. Another aspect of the composition of the staff is the participation of technical specialists or experts. Article 9 of Convention No. 81 sets forth specific provisions which are very important for the practical effectiveness of labour inspectorates. These provisions require the necessary measures to be taken to ensure that duly qualified technical experts and specialists, including specialists in medicine, engineering, electricity and chemistry, are associated in the work of inspection in such manner as may be deemed most appropriate under national conditions for the purpose of securing the enforcement of the legal provisions relating to the protection of the health and safety of workers while engaged in their work and of investigating the effects of processes, materials and methods of work on the health and safety of workers. Article 11 of Convention No. 129 contains similar provisions, adapted to the context of agriculture.

219. The practice of States, in this matter, reflects two main approaches: a variety of technical specialists may be included in the establishment of the labour inspection services concerned or, where necessary, the general inspector may call on a technical expert outside the inspection staff, who may sometimes have the same duties and powers as the inspector within his terms of reference. The two approaches may also be combined.

220. Special arrangements are often made where medical specialisation is involved. A few countries have organised a special medical inspectorate, (Endnote 15) others attach an employment medical advisory service (Endnote 16) or medical inspectors (Endnote 17) to the general inspectorate; some provide for various forms of association with medical practitioners. (Endnote 18) As the practice of having occupational health services at enterprise level (or pooled between enterprises) extends, closer links tend to develop between the latter and the inspectorates too.

221. That being so in principle, the number of technical experts available, the range of their specialisations and the organisation of their work vary considerably from country to country and have to be assessed in the light of the circumstances of each case. Only in extreme cases (poorer or smaller countries) do such arrangements seem to be lacking altogether.

222. The Committee wishes to point out the importance of the optimal management of technical specialisations required for, and available to, labour inspection services as a key factor in determining their effectiveness. It is not only a question of numbers and professional specifications: it is also a question of being able to cope with the realities of industry at a given place and time and even more of whether staff are utilised in the manner which in given circumstances is most likely to result in effective protection and advice. On occasion and in particularly complex situations, inspections may be conducted by multidisciplinary teams. (Endnote 19)

223. To the extent that certain highly qualified expertise is scarce, decisions may have to be made regarding the level of expertise at which routine inspections are to be made, while the more skilled professionals may have to be pooled centrally or regionally, at least in inspectorates having competence for a large spectrum of industrial activities. Where certain industrial sectors are entrusted to special inspectorates, the case is different: e.g., mine and transport technical inspectors can obviously only be recruited from among expert technicians qualified in their respective fields. Even in their general inspectorates, certain countries with a complex industrial structure tend to organise and train individual inspectors so as to enrich specialised knowledge of the problems of particular industries or processes.

224. There are difficulties, though, for some of the poorer countries, where certain highly technical specialisations may be particularly scarce: provisional arrangements may be necessary in such cases and efforts at ensuring the future availability of required skills, through training and otherwise, may have to be pursued over relatively long periods. International help may be more than desirable in those situations and the Committee hopes that such facilities, for instance, as have been made available to this end through ILO technical co-operation programmes will continue and that these programmes will receive the necessary support.

225. The following remarks concern the functional composition and grading of the staff. Apart from the question of technical qualifications, the inspection staff, except perhaps in the smallest countries where the entire inspectorate may amount to one or two individuals, is usually organised in the more or less traditional patterns of administrative structure and hierarchy. In nearly every country the labour inspectorate is composed of different grades, managers (central, regional, district or sectional), inspectors and subordinate personnel such as deputy, assistant or auxiliary inspectors. The responsibilities of the latter may in some cases be more limited than those of labour inspectors, owing to their lower qualifications, and they generally work under the inspectors' authority and supervision. In certain circumstances they may be promoted to the rank of inspector.

226. In so far as resources allow, most countries tend to deploy inspection staff at various geographical levels (e.g. central, regional, district, local) with corresponding levels of responsibility or coverage. There are a few cases, however, where owing to a variety of factors (resources, geographical configuration or size of the country or distribution of industries, communications or transport problems), staff may be concentrated in the capital city. There is no doubt that the efficacy of labour inspection depends on the adequate deployment of staff throughout the country so as to cover effectively all workplaces liable to inspection.

III. Material means at the disposal of inspection services

227. Under Article 11 of Convention No. 81 and Article 15 of Convention No. 129, the competent authority shall make the necessary arrangements to furnish labour inspectors with (a) local offices suitably equipped in accordance with the requirements of the service (Convention No. 129 adds that offices should be so located as to take account of the geographical situation of the agricultural undertakings and of the means of communication) and accessible to all persons concerned (in so far as possible in the case of agriculture); (b) the transport facilities necessary for the performance of their duties in cases where suitable public facilities do not exist. The reimbursement of travelling expenses incurred while on duty is also provided for. Paragraph 12 of Recommendation No. 133 adds that employers should provide the necessary facilities to labour inspectors in agriculture, including, where appropriate, the use of a room for interviews with persons working in the undertaking.

A. Offices, equipment and documentation

228. It is difficult for the Committee to form a considered opinion about the position in various countries regarding office premises described in the reports. Nearly all governments report that suitable and suitably equipped offices are available to their inspection services. However, some reports acknowledge that, owing to various difficulties, the accommodation of inspectorates is considered inadequate; in some cases efforts are being made at improvement. (Endnote 20) ILO mission and seminar reports have on occasion pointed out certain difficulties in this respect, which may be particularly serious in the case of poorer countries. In extreme cases, the Committee has noted with concern from the government's report that labour inspectors in the majority of districts do not have offices at their disposal.

229. There are two aspects of the problem which the Committee wishes to point out. Firstly, the Committee must repeat its remark of 1966, i.e. that as inspection services are in continuous contact with the public, it is important for their local offices to be introduced in such a way as to facilitate public access and also to create a pleasant atmosphere, which can contribute to the establishment of good relations between the public and the inspection staff. A further step towards gaining the confidence of employers and workers who visit the inspection services is for each inspector to have a private office; furthermore, communications facilities (telephone, secretariat) are needed for messages to be left for the inspector when he is out of his office on inspection visits.

230. Secondly, labour inspection premises need to include rooms for libraries, laboratories, exhibition and lecture facilities and the Committee wishes to point out that the provision of these facilities is more than a matter of routine importance. Indeed, inspection services need more than the usual office facilities, equipment and secretariat support. In order to plan, carry out and follow up their work, these services need an effective system of registration and records of undertakings as an information tool; in some of the more developed countries such systems are being increasingly computerised. In addition, the inspectorate needs adequate equipment (which has to be stored and maintained, and requires personnel trained for its use) for the necessary sample-taking, measurements and so on in undertakings. More sophisticated analytical work requires regional or central laboratories, either attached to the inspectorate or available to it at universities, public hygiene institutes and the like. Indeed, some of the more industrialised countries, in order to face up to the needs of their own industries, have established and maintain impressive specialist research institutions in this field. (Endnote 21) Obviously, the results of such scientific research, which are usually published, benefit the entire world community and not only the countries where the research is carried out. Occupational hazards occur which may be linked to particular climates, products or processes, and it is therefore desirable to promote the availability of resources for supporting the scientific base of labour inspection work in all parts of the world. The Committee has noted with satisfaction, for instance, the technical co-operation which the ILO has been able to provide so far to laboratories, research institutes and centres attached to the factory and labour inspectorates of many developing countries. The Committee expresses the hope that the necessary resources will be available to enable it to continue.

231. A third set of problems concerns the availability to labour inspectorates of premises and resources to prepare, stock and dispense, in clear, comprehensible form, information to employers and workers, not only on how to comply with the law, but also on how to prevent occupational accidents and diseases, on recommended codes of practice, and the like. Information available to the Committee shows that, in some countries, the labour inspection services possess the resources to do so, but unfortunately lack them in many others. The Committee believes, however, that great attention should be paid, or continue to be paid, to every opportunity available to boost the effectiveness of labour inspectorates through appropriate information to employers and workers on appropriate technical practices, as well as on their duties and responsibilities.

232. Regarding any measures taken, for instance by employers, in particular in the agricultural sector, to ensure that labour inspectors are provided with the facilities necessary for the performance of their duties, including a place for interviewing persons working in the undertaking, very little information is available to the Committee. Some countries have made special provisions in this regard. (Endnote 22)

B. Transport

233. With regard to means of transport, governments report that inspectors often use public transport facilities where these are available. In some countries, the inspection service may have some official cars available; in others, inspectors may be helped by the government (e.g. through loans on favourable conditions) to purchase private cars. Various combinations of such transport facilities also occur. Whatever the means of transport used, most governments state that there are rules applicable for the reimbursement of travelling expenses incurred on duty. (Endnote 23) While, generally speaking, recourse to public transport facilities and use of private automobiles (rather than official vehicles) appear to be the most frequent practices, resources to cover these costs may be scarce with respect to the amount of official travel needed, or else indemnities applicable under relevant rules may be regarded as rather low. Cases of this nature have been drawn to the Committee's attention from time to time. In other cases, because of inflation, the transport credits of labour inspectorates may have decreased in real terms over time. Cases have been known where inspectors have had to pay for public transport from their own pocket.

234. In certain countries, the nature of the terrain (e.g. scattered islands, difficult roads, scattered settlements in vast areas) may combine with the lack of means of transport (Endnote 24) to restrict, in practice, inspection visits to areas mainly around the capital city. Breakdowns of official (or private) cars may be difficult to repair in countries where maintenance facilities are short. Exceptionally, some petrol shortages have affected labour inspectors' transportation too, confining them somewhat to urban areas. There have been a number of cases where the Committee has had to note in its comments to ratifying countries that the frequency of inspection visits depends on the availability of transport, and has expressed the hope that the governments concerned will take the necessary steps to provide inspectors with suitable transport facilities. One country (Endnote 25) has reported that the transportation of inspectors is ensured by taking them to an area in government vehicles and returning to pick them up later. On other occasions, following the Committee's comments, measures were taken to furnish the inspection service with adequate material means, including the transport facilities necessary for the performance of their duties. (Endnote 26)

IV. Inspection visits

235. Article 16 of Convention No. 81 and Article 21 of Convention No. 129 provide that workplaces should be inspected as often and as thoroughly as is necessary to ensure the effective application of the relevant legal provisions. What happens in practice under this clear and simple provision is the basic test of the entire concept of labour inspection. And yet it is in this respect that the information that reaches the Committee is frequently perplexing and worrying.

236. From information available it would appear that in many countries (including both industrialised and developing countries), it would take labour inspectorates 4 to 12, 15 or even 20 years or more to visit all workplaces liable to inspection. In one country routine inspections have been suspended altogether, (Endnote 27) elsewhere they are restricted to a minimum and inspectors mainly react to requests and complaints; there are countries where agricultural enterprises are visited on complaint only or not at all.

237. This is far from the ideal voiced some decades ago, i.e. visits to be aimed at once a year on average (admitting, however, that some enterprises might not belong to the "once a year" category). For instance, the draft of Article 16 of Convention No. 81 originally proposed by the Office, provided that inspection visits were to be made at least once a year in dangerous and unhealthy workplaces and as often as necessary to ensure enforcement of the law in other workplaces: it was argued in support of the drafting which was eventually adopted that it was undesirable to base the frequency of visits on a specific period of elapsed time, and that the proposal incorporated the idea that inspection visits were to be thorough, which was equally important. (Endnote 28) The Committee was even able to note in 1966 that, while, "generally speaking, the frequency of inspection visits is more often established by administrative instructions or left to the initiative of the inspectors than governed by specific laws or regulations", none the less "where there are explicit provisions they state, as a general rule, that all workplaces must be inspected once a year". (Endnote 29) The "once a year" rule seems still to be retained in principle by some legislations, sometimes with the qualification that more emphasis is placed on visiting large establishments whose administration seems unsatisfactory from the point of view of maintaining the workers' health and safety or where hazardous operations harmful to health are carried out: the information available did not, however, allow the Committee to check the degree of conformity of practice with law in all these cases. If the Committee has recalled the old concept of "once a year" visits, it has not done so because there is something sacred about it, but rather to show how the ability of inspectorates to make visits has evolved since then and throw light on the problems they now have to face.

238. It is clear from current information that many inspectorates do not and cannot visit once a year (Endnote 30) every single undertaking subject to their supervision. It is also obvious, though, that they can hardly be effective if they can cover the ground only over periods of 12 years or longer. Between these two extremes, the ability to reach a satisfactory compromise ensuring that -- as the terms of the relevant Conventions prescribe -- "workplaces shall be inspected as often and as thoroughly as is necessary", is a matter partly of resources and partly of management.

239. Unfortunately, declines (sometimes steady declines) in the number or frequency of inspections carried out (even in some industrialised countries) have been brought to the attention of the Committee, sometimes with the remark that on the basis of statistics of industrial injuries it is not possible to conclude that there is evidence of a tangible improvement in conditions of work and occupational safety. (Endnote 31)

240. Where the frequency of inspection visits has decreased markedly during recent years in certain industrialised countries, this may at least in part have been related to the increase in the number of workplaces, to the greater complexity of the legal provisions to be enforced and to the greater complexity of the technologies involved. In other cases, particularly in some developing countries, although the annual frequency of visits of inspection may be regarded as satisfactory for the country as a whole, certain regional discrepancies are noted, with particularly low visiting rates in certain provinces.

241. In agriculture generally, the frequency of inspection visits appears to be less satisfactory than in industry. Where agricultural undertakings are found to have the lowest priority for inspection, or are not inspected over long periods, serious consideration should be given to remedying the situation.

242. Having dealt with resources in earlier paragraphs, the Committee will now turn to management, in so far as it is relevant to the frequency and nature of inspection visits. The main instruments of management used, either singly or in combination, by certain labour inspectorates (including those of some developed countries) to maximise results with scarce resources which have been brought to the Committee's attention, can be grouped in the five categories which follow.

243. Firstly, mention must be made of careful planning and selection of priorities for inspection, reserving inspectors' time for both routine visits (general, special or follow-up) and visits following complaints. Periodical or annual programmes, including priority objectives, may be planned for. (Endnote 32) Urgency-rating systems have been devised, for instance, taking into account a variety of factors (including potential dangerousness of work, management record, time elapsed since last visit) with a view to obtaining a reasonable order of routine visits which are planned on the basis of an objective selection of priorities. (Endnote 33) Accounting in various ways for one or the other particular factor in selecting priority of visits is mentioned in some reports. (Endnote 34) The frequency of visits may also be planned according to the size of undertakings. (Endnote 35) Efforts have also been made to deploy staff throughout the national territory on the base of economic concentration, current priorities and development plan objectives. (Endnote 36) However, in the case of certain countries, particularly among the developing ones, any such planning is considerably hampered at the start by inadequate information on the precise number and nature of establishments subject to inspection. It seems, unfortunately, that inspectorates exist where planning or preparation of inspection visits is not usual. Cases have been known where red tape (special permits, time restrictions, check-in and check-out) has run contrary to the effectiveness of inspectors' movements.

244. A second possibility is to plan for campaigns aimed at thorough canvassing of a problem (Endnote 37) which, according to current record, may be or be expected to become particularly serious, e.g. problems related to a particular substance, or to certain processes, or affecting a category of workers, or assessed as potentially serious throughout a given industry, etc. This method often has the additional advantage of producing a better grasp of the facts of the problem for improved control in the future.

245. Thirdly, duplication in the use of scarce resources has to be guarded against, especially when different inspectors or inspectorates are involved.

246. Fourthly, specialist inspectors, e.g. on an industrial basis, have sometimes served to maximise the effectiveness/time ratio.

247. Fifthly, it may be noted again that participation of employers and workers and their respective organisations -- which is analysed to some extent elsewhere in this survey (Endnote 38) in addition to being socially desirable, effectively enhances the economics of labour inspection. This is particularly the case where specialised units are set up in employers' and workers' organisations and at workplaces to look after problems of the working environment and working conditions.

248. In any case, it is important that the management of labour inspection services ensures that inspectors spend most of their time (say, three or four days a week) actually doing field work (i.e. visiting enterprises), rather than sedentary office work (discussing cases, answering calls, reporting or collating information, maintaining correspondence, or involved in administrative red tape). A number of shortcomings in achieving this result -- which is after all what labour inspectorates are there for -- have been drawn to the Committee's attention from time to time.

249. For these overall reasons, the Committee, in the course of examination of reports due under article 22 of the Constitution, has understandably been seeking from a number of governments information about the frequency and nature of inspection visits and factors influencing them. It expresses the hope that, with the continued co-operation of governments, it will be in a position to assess clearly the evolution over time of this very important test of the overall effectiveness of labour inspection.

250. There have fortunately been some countries (both developing and highly industrialised) where the number, and possibly the frequency, of inspection visits (mainly in industry) have shown some increases; (Endnote 39) regrettably such occasions for satisfaction which have been clearly reported to the Committee have not been numerous.

251. As regards the actual conduct of inspection visits, or the establishment of any practical rules or instructions (Endnote 40) for the working methods of inspectors and the carrying out of visits, little information is really available to the Committee. While it appears that some inspectorates have extensive recourse to such rules or instructions, unfortunately there is some indication, too, that in other cases where they would be badly needed and have been proposed (e.g. with the assistance of ILO experts) in practice they are little used. In general terms, the Committee can only commend again in this connection the ILO publication Labour inspection, purposes and practices, which first appeared in 1973.

252. It is normal practice in most countries for inspectors to make, for official purposes, a report of the visit made. Information available to the Committee seems to indicate that generally speaking in many countries (Endnote 41) copies or extracts of such reports are usually sent to the employer and in some of those countries also to the representatives of the workers. (Endnote 42) In certain countries, the information must be first sent to the workers' organisations and undertakings concerned. (Endnote 43) In addition, it has usually been recognised that good labour inspection practice requires, after the lapse of a reasonable time, control (by follow-up visits or otherwise) of the measures taken by the employer to remedy the infringements or deficiencies found by the inspector. The attention of the Committee has been drawn to the fact that such practice is followed in certain countries, or that in certain cases the employer is bound to inform the inspectorate within a prescribed delay of the action he has taken at the inspector's request. Unfortunately, however, the Committee has not at present sufficient information to enable it to assess in detail to what extent such good practices are applied throughout the world. It appears that in some countries, perhaps because of a general lack of resources, they are not applied in any systematic way.

Endnotes

Endnote 2

Endnote 3

Endnote 4

Endnote 5

Endnote 6

Endnote 7

Endnote 8

Endnote 9

Endnote 10

Endnote 11

Endnote 12

Endnote 13

Endnote 14

Endnote 15

Endnote 16

Endnote 17

Endnote 18

Endnote 19

Endnote 20

Endnote 21

Endnote 22

Endnote 23

Endnote 24

Endnote 26

Endnote 27

Endnote 28

Endnote 29

Endnote 30

Endnote 31

Endnote 32

Endnote 33

Endnote 34

Endnote 35

Endnote 36

Endnote 37

Endnote 38

Endnote 39

Endnote 40

Endnote 41

Endnote 42

Endnote 43

Cross references
Constitution: Article 19
Constitution: Article 22
Constitution: Article 35