Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2000, published 89th ILC session (2001)

Labour Administration Convention, 1978 (No. 150) - Congo (Ratification: 1986)

The Committee notes the Government’s reports for the period ending in September 1999, and the documents attached thereto.

The Committee takes note of Decree No. 92-178 of 16 May 1992 establishing the attributions of the Ministry of Employment, Labour, Social Action and National Solidarity as the body responsible for devising and executing state policy on employment, labour, social action and national solidarity and for the organization of public services and establishments. It notes with interest that the above Ministry is responsible for guiding the education services in their vocational and technical training policy in order to match training and employment needs, for organizing and supervising the employment market and for providing vocational training for adults, and retraining and further training for state workers and employees. It is also in charge of organizing and promoting social action to benefit all strata of Congolese society, initiating all kinds of measures to promote employment, vocational training, work, social action and national solidarity, the various functions being distributed between the central directorates. The Committee notes that the Decree also provides for the adoption of specific texts concerning the various bodies under the Ministry’s control.

In its report for 1995, the Government indicated that the practical difficulties encountered in applying the Convention were for the most part linked to the economic and financial situation, and exacerbated by the requirements of structural adjustment which are affecting the resources of the labour administration. In the same report, in reply to the Committee’s comments on the application of Article 10, the Government stated that, owing to these constraints, it was not planning to adopt specific statutes which would have the effect of increasing state expenditure, and indicated that there would be severe cuts in labour administration staff pursuant to texts establishing the removal from office of certain public service employees. The Committee also notes from an activities report of the Niari regional labour directorate for 1994, sent by the Government, that owing to the economic and financial situation "the budgets for operating services exist only on paper", and that some subsidies were paid sporadically and were used mainly to purchase essential office equipment. According to the same report, there is a serious lack of office equipment, premises are rundown and vehicles are non-existent.

The Committee takes note of Act No. 8-96 of 6 March 1996 to amend the Labour Code. Section 131 of the Act provides among other things for a National Technical Commission for Health, Safety and the Prevention of Occupational Risks, to be composed of representatives of the Government, employers and workers as well as qualified experts. The Act also provides for a decree to be issued establishing the composition and operation of the said commission. According to section 145, workers and their families are to have daily access to a medical service and, under section 156-2, the labour inspector is to be assisted by the medical labour inspector in the supervision of legislative or regulatory prescriptions concerning occupational health and medicine in enterprises. The Committee also notes that, according to section 170, the National Labour Advisory Commission, which is tripartite, may call, for consultation purposes, on public servants or persons with economic, medical, social and ethnographic qualifications. The same provision states that a decree will establish the membership and requirements for the organization and operation of the commission. Section 173 provides that in every enterprise employing seven or more workers, personnel representatives must be elected and that an order will establish the amount of working time accorded to representatives to carry out their duties, the resources to be made available to them and the conditions in which they will be heard by the employer or his representative.

The practical implementation of the legislative provisions thus adopted to organize a cohesive and coordinated administration system and to provide services that ensure optimum labour market and working conditions necessarily implies that human resources and material and financial means must be made available to the abovementioned Ministry when decisions are taken regarding the annual budget. In view of the economic and financial situation referred to by the Government and the obstacles to the recruitment of public servants arising out of structural adjustment, the Committee asks the Government to indicate the measures taken under the abovementioned texts, to provide copies of any relevant documents and to indicate how it plans to attain the objectives it has set itself regarding labour administration.

The Committee takes due note of the information supplied by the Government concerning the technical assistance activities carried out by the ILO with cooperation from the UNDP and other donors to reorganize and streamline some labour administration services as part of the programme being implemented to develop the private sector and promote SMEs. The Committee also notes the ILO’s technical assistance activities for the organization, financial analysis and actuarial evaluation for the reform of the National Social Security Fund, and the reorganization of employment management to set up suitable vocational training facilities as well as structures for assistance, advice and financing. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supply information on the development of these activities and the results obtained, and in particular on the establishment of the logistical support group announced in the 1995 report which was to provide the labour administration with assistance in operating the National Labour Advisory Commission.

In its 1999 report, the Government indicates that two seminars on the prevention of occupational risks and the management of industrial relations and social conflicts were organized under the aegis of the ILO and the African Regional Centre for Labour Administration (CRADAT) for labour administrators and chief labour inspectors. The Government is asked to provide particulars of the practical impact of these seminars.