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Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Switzerland (RATIFICATION: 1949)

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The Committee notes the observations of the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions (USS/SGB), communicated with the Government’s report.

Article 3(2) of the Convention. Additional functions of labour inspectors. Functions entrusted to labour inspectors related to migration. The Committee notes the Government’s indication in its report that the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) does not have an overall view of all the cantons in which inspection bodies responsible for applying the Federal Act on undeclared work (LTN) are also responsible for monitoring compliance with labour law. The Government also states that the SECO conducts regular audits in the cantons, to verify whether the inspection bodies are fulfilling their mandate correctly. Nevertheless, the Committee notes from the 2022 report on the application of the LTN that 1048 workers were penalized by the competent authorities in accordance with the legislation on foreign nationals and that on tax deduction at source. Taking this data into account, and in the absence of information on the role of labour inspectors in sanctioning workers in an irregular situation in the cantons, the Committee requests the Government to indicate the manner in which the SECO ensures that, in the cantons, the function assigned to labour inspectors of supervising workers in an irregular situation does not interfere with their main objective of ensuring the protection of workers in accordance with Article 3 of the Convention.

Articles 5(b) and 10. Collaboration between officials of the labour inspectorate and employers and workers or their organizations. Sufficient number of labour inspectors. The Committee notes, according to the comments of the USS/SGB, that there is an insufficient number of labour inspectors in the cantons, resulting in too few random checks. The USS/SGB also considers it unacceptable to have the police, the joint committee, the trade unions and the authorities involved in monitoring undeclared work perform as labour inspectors, since those actors lack knowledge of labour law and health protection. In this regard the Committee notes the Government’s indication that the SECO runs regular checks to ensure that the training of labour inspectors and their staffing levels are sufficient, but that organization of the service is under the authority of cantons. The Committee also notes the order issued by the SECO on training and on minimum teams assigned to cantonal labour inspection duties, adopted in 2022. It further notes, from the 2022 annual labour inspection report that the staff of the labour inspectorate increased from 628 in 2020 to 635 in 2021, before falling back to 628 in 2022. Finally, according to the USS/SGB, the social partners are not sufficiently involved in the inspections, in particular regarding implementation of occupational safety and health legislation. The Committee requests the Government to provide more information on the measures taken to improve collaboration between officials of the labour inspectorate and the social partners, particularly in the field of occupational safety and health. The Committee also requests the Government to indicate whether measures are envisaged to increase the numbers of labour inspectors in the cantons in order to conduct more random checks.