Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Brazil (Ratification: 1989)

With reference to its observation and further to its previous comments, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide further information on the following points.

Article 6 of the Convention. The Committee notes that under provisional measure No. 1915-1 of 29 July 1999 extended by provisional measure No. 2093-24 of 19 April 2001, labour inspectors have their own regulations and the same conditions of pay as tax inspectors. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the adoption of final measures and to indicate at all events how it plans to provide labour inspectors, on a permanent basis, with a status and conditions of service consistent with those prescribed in this provision of the Convention. It also asks the Government to provide information on the results of the investigation into allegations of connivance, corruption and extortion on the part of labour inspectors in charge of enforcing occupational safety standards.

Article 10. The Government states that in March 2001 the total number of serving labour inspectors was 3,094 including 308 specialists in occupational medicine and 395 in engineering, in addition to 100 health and safety inspectors, and that the inspection staff was distributed according to the number of inhabitants in each of the 26 states and the Federal District. In the Government’s view, the staff of the inspectorate is too small in view of the size of the country and the large population, but it was not possible to hold the competition to recruit for the 100 or so vacant posts owing to financial difficulties which required measures to adjust public expenditure, one of which was to bar the competition to recruit new public servants between 1999 and April 2000. Furthermore, the Federal Supreme Court issued a decision ordering implementation of a public competition opened in 1994 in which some 700 applicants were successful, which prevented the recruitment of new labour inspectors owing to the financial implications of training the successful applicants. The Committee hopes that the difficulties referred to by the Government will be shortly overcome and that the Government will be in a position to report on the resumption of the recruitment and training of labour inspectors in the interests of the effective discharge of the duties of the inspectorate.

Articles 13 and 16. According to a report from the regional labour delegation of the State of Piauí sent to the ILO at the request of the Union of Workers of the Urban Industries of the State of Piauí (SINTPI), a large number of workers of CEPISA, an electricity company, and other service companies in the sector have died as a result of occupational accidents. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would take the necessary steps to direct the supervisory activities of the competent inspection services towards investigating the risk factors responsible for these accidents and exploring the means to eliminate them, and to send relevant information to the ILO.

Articles 17, paragraph 2, and 18. The Committee notes the Instruçao normativa intersectorial No. 13, of 6 July 1999, instituting a procedure, educational in intent, to involve employers in determining a programme of relevant measures to remedy recurrent breach of provisions of the labour law other than in instances of serious and imminent danger to workers. With reference to its previous observation in which it stressed the need to apply the penalties established by law for infringements of the labour legislation, the Committee requests the Government to provide copies of the texts pertaining to the relevant penalties and to send information on how it is ensured, in practice, that employers failing to comply with measures taken under the above Instruçao normativa intersectorial are penalized in accordance with the law.

Articles 20 and 21. The Committee notes the tables showing the activities of the inspection services from 1999 to 2001, and the occupational accident statistics for the same period. It reminds the Government of the obligation imposed by these provisions of the Convention, and asks it to take measures to ensure that an annual general report on the work of the inspection services under its control is published by the central inspection authority and sent to the ILO.