Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2003, published 92nd ILC session (2004)

Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129) - French Polynesia

The Committee notes the Government’s reports for the period ending in May 2002.

With reference to its observation of 1998, the Committee notes once again that the information provided by the Government is too vague to serve as a basis for any assessment of the extent to which this Convention is applied.

For example, under Article 21 of the Convention, which provides that agricultural enterprises shall be inspected as often and as thoroughly as is necessary to ensure the effective application of the relevant legislation, the Government states: "As far as the resources for labour inspection in French Polynesia allow, agricultural enterprises are inspected under the same conditions as enterprises in the other branches of activity." The annual labour inspection report for agriculture for 2001 mentions five inspections in enterprises and 41 violations reported for 180 persons covered while the Government indicates for its part that for the first quarter of 2002, six inspections were carried out in the agricultural sector, that they resulted in 24 violations reported for 75 wage-earners employed in these enterprises, but that these numbers overlap with those of the fishing and pearl farming sectors.

The ratification of this Convention carries with it, in accordance with article 22 of the ILO Constitution, an obligation to report every two years on the measures taken in view of its application. In its report, the Government has to provide the specific information requested by the report form established by the ILO Governing Body under each of the provisions of the instrument. Furthermore, the Government has to ensure that the central authority for labour inspection produces an annual activity report in such a manner that the information requested by each of the items of Article 27, and specific to its activities in the agricultural enterprises covered, is easily identified so as to serve as a basis for assessing the extent to which the Convention is applied.

According to the information available on the Internet site of the Overseas Ministry, agriculture in French Polynesia helps to sustain the population of the archipelago, with the most recent census indicating the existence of 6,200 farms with 12,000 permanent workers and more than 600 seasonal workers. It indicates that copra ensures a livelihood for more than 10,000 persons and covers almost three-quarters of the cultivated land area. Fruit and vegetable farms, pig raising and egg production are the other important activities of the region as cattle raising faces strong competition from imports from New Zealand and metropolitan France. It therefore appears to be quite justified from an economic and social point of view for the labour inspection system to be developed in agricultural enterprises in order to ensure the application of legislation respecting the working conditions and protection of a relatively important portion of the working population. This Convention envisages, under Article 7, paragraph 3(a), the possibility of organizing labour inspection in agriculture in the framework of a single labour inspectorate responsible for all sectors of economic activity, while requiring at the same time in Article 14 that arrangements shall be made to ensure that the number of labour inspectors in agriculture is sufficient to secure the effective discharge of the duties of the inspectorate and is determined with due regard for:

(a)  the importance of the duties which inspectors have to perform, in particular:

(i)  the number, nature, size and situation of the agricultural enterprises liable to inspection;

(ii)  the number and classes of persons working in such enterprises; and

(iii)  the number and complexity of the legal provisions to be enforced;

(b)  the material means placed at the disposal of the inspectors; and

(c)  the practical conditions under which visits of inspection must be carried out in order to be effective.

The information in the Government’s report indicates that the management of the inspection services (the Director, the Assistant Director and the only inspector) are personnel on temporary assignment from metropolitan France and are periodically renewed at the end of each assignment, whereas the two labour supervisors are territorial agents recruited either by competitive or professional examination, or internal transfer within the territorial administration. The recruitment of a medical labour officer and of a woman employee under contract as labour supervisors has also been announced. Furthermore, the Government indicates that it has asked the Central Mission for the Support and Coordination of Decentralized Services (MICAPCOR) for support in order to assess the means to be made available to the labour inspectorate and envisages reinforcing the supervision of health and safety in agriculture in 2002 by increasing the number of inspections compared to the previous years. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would supplement this information by indicating any measures actually taken to give effect to the provisions of Articles 14, 15, 19, 21 and 25, relating to the application of the Convention in agricultural enterprises, and if it would ensure that the information specific to the activities of the inspection services in agriculture, as envisaged under Article 27, is easy to identify in the annual inspection report published by the central authority.