Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Occupational Safety and Health Convention, 1981 (No. 155) - Croatia (Ratification: 1991)

1. Article 9 of the Convention. The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in reply to its previous comments of 1998 following the observation made by the Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia (UATUC) concerning the adequacy of the number of inspectors and on the scope of the Law on Labour Inspection. The Committee now notes that as of 31 December 1998 there were 151 labour inspectors of which 90 were in charge of occupational safety and health regulations and 71 were in charge of labour relations regulations. It is planned that in 1999 an additional 70 inspectors will be employed by which the number of inspectors will be brought in line with the number of employees, thus ensuring compliance with the provisions of the Labour Inspection Act which provides that for every 4,000 employees there must be one inspector. The Committee hopes the situation of occupational safety and health inspection will continue to improve.

The Committee also notes the information that, while both the Convention and the Occupational Safety and Health Act apply to all activities, some activities of supervision over their application is not exercised by the labour inspection, in accordance with section 2 of the Labour Inspection Act. Supervision of the application of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in the mining sector is exercised by the mining inspection, mining clearing activities are supervised by the Ministry of Interior inspectors, and inspection of living and working conditions of ships' crews is carried out by nautical and marine engineering inspectors. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would take measures to ensure that information regarding occupational safety and health inspection carried out by the other services such as the inspectors of the Harbour Masters Offices and the mining inspectors are provided to the Office on a regular basis.

2. Articles 4, 5, 11(f) and 15. Further to its previous comments, the Committee notes that the National Council for Safety and Health and the Institute of Occupational Safety and Health were to be established during 1999 on an urgent basis. Please provide information on any progress made in this respect.