Background

Improvement in labour inspection could significantly contribute to Mongolia’s achieving the SDGs. The comments of ILO Committee of Experts on Mongolia’s reports on ratified conventions and national studies on working conditions, including the NHRCM study on the working conditions in SMEs published in December 2017, have consistently called on attention to workplace issues such as occupational safety and health, harassment against women and youth at work, discrimination in employment practices, improved understanding about labour exploitation and forced labour and the need to improve labour inspection practices.

The General Agency for Specialized Inspection (GASI) is the government agency in charge of all types of state inspection, including labour inspection. By law, planned inspections are done on the basis of risk assessment, unplanned inspections on the basis of complaints and requests; or by the decision of the competent institution. Therefore, inspectors must notify enterprises before carrying out an inspection, which can limit the possibility of spotting violations at work. Moreover, labour inspectors do not generally conduct inspections in the informal economy. Various studies and informal self-assessments by labour inspectors also highlight the need of improving capacity of labour inspectors to benefit from modernized techniques and practices to ensure effective enforcement and compliance.

Objective

To introduce and discuss the ILO Strategic Compliance Planning Approach with GASI towards strengthening their labour inspection process.

Mr Robert Rene, ILO Specialist in Labour Administration and Labour Inspection will facilitate the seminar attended by 40 labour inspectors and officials of GASI.