Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Kuwait (Ratification: 1964)

The Committee notes the Government’s report in reply to its previous comments. It notes the Government’s undertaking to supply information in its next report describing the measures taken to meet the requests made by the Committee in its previous observation, which read as follows:

1. Presentation of industrial accident statistics and prevention. The Committee notes with satisfaction the breakdown of data on the number of industrial accidents, their causes, the nature of injuries sustained, and their consequences regarding capacity for work, by employment branch and by region according to the period of the year (Article 21(f)). It notes with concern, however, the large number of industrial accidents reported, in particular in the building and construction industry (871), the commerce, hotel and catering (695) and the processing industries (327) during the period covered. These accidents resulted in, respectively for each of these branches of employment, permanent incapacity for work for 67 workers, 625 workers and 244 workers. Analysis of the causes of the accidents highlights, for the most part, personal falls (277 in building and construction, 240 in the commerce, catering and hotel trade, and 74 in the processing industries), falling objects (242 in building and construction, 122 in the commerce, hotel and catering industry, and 94 in the processing industries), as well as accidents caused by machines and plant (225, 138 and 94 respectively). According to the statistics of the labour inspection on safety and health at work, supplied by the Government for 2003, only two contraventions to sections 15, 18, 19 and 20 of Ministerial Order No. 114/1996 on the hazards of falling were registered during a first visit to the construction sector and that this figure was reduced to zero during the inspection to check compliance. In the commerce, hotel and catering sector, the number of violations to the relevant legislation was reduced from 111 on the first visit to 13 on the follow-up visit, but the number of 277 falls in the first sector and 122 in the second, during the following year should make the central inspection authority question the efficiency of inspections regarding prevention of industrial accidents. In particular, the authority should envisage laying down measures, first, to enhance the competence of inspectors responsible for health and safety at work and, secondly, to arouse the awareness of employers in the sectors most affected to the highest risks and the means of avoiding them or at least reducing them to a reasonable level. In several countries, further to the provisions by the inspectors of technical counselling and advice, the increase of social insurance subscriptions for employers, on the basis of the number and seriousness of industrial accidents linked to neglect of safety measures required by legislation, has proved effective in this respect.

The Committee notes that the compilation of statistics provides no information on penal or administrative sanctions applied to employers in violation of the relevant legal provisions. The repressive role of the labour inspection is nevertheless fundamental in this regard when measures of an educational nature remain ineffectual. Appropriate publicized sanctions have made it possible in many countries to arouse consciences to the need to comply with prescriptions on safety and health at work. In Chapter III of its 2006 General Survey on labour inspection, the Committee describes the various aspects of the repressive role of this institution. It hopes that the Government will find useful information therein and will be able to supply in its next report information showing a positive evolution on the subject and that statistics indicating the translation into practice of this evolution will be included in the annual inspection report.

2. Inadequacy of inspection activities in regard to general labour conditions. With regard to violations of legislation on general labour conditions such as hours of work, payment of wages, holidays, child labour, the right to breastfeed and to maternity leave, and workers’ living conditions, the compilation contains only a few indications which are insignificant in regard to the population covered.

In contrast, the Committee notes once again a plethora of extremely detailed information on supervisory activities and their results regarding labour permits, permits to import labour and movements of the imported labour force, showing the violations committed by workers and the sanctions applied to them.

In 2004, they included:

–      4,186 violations of legislation regarding registration of labour;

–      1,344 violations of legislation relating to clocking in and out;

–      3,082 violations of employment under guarantee of a third employer; and only

–      one violation to legislation on employment of young persons;

–      no violations on maternity leave; and

–      no violations of the obligation to pay wages.

Analysis of violations by branch of employment reveals, on page 211 of the compilation of statistics for 2004, that in commerce, hotel and catering – which hold the record for violations registered by the labour inspection (72 per cent) – they are essentially linked to food hygiene in catering. On the one hand, this field clearly goes beyond the scope of the inspection systems laid down in the Convention (Article 3) and, on the other, it is not mentioned as coming under the scope of the national inspection system by any of the texts on the subject available at the ILO. The responsibilities conferred on labour inspection personnel by virtue of Order No. 137 of 2001 of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs are designed to ensure application of labour legislation in regard to labour conditions, occupational safety and social protection of workers (sections 1, 2(1)), as well as ensuring compliance with labour legislation.

The Committee draws the Government’s attention to Article 3(2) of the Convention under which any further duties which may be entrusted to labour inspectors shall not be such as to interfere with the discharge of their primary duties. Despite plentiful relevant legislation, inspection activities designed to ensure the application of provisions on labour conditions and workers’ protection seem, nevertheless, to account for only a very small share of the material resources and working time of the labour inspection staff in comparison with its activities designed to supervise movements of foreign workers. Such a situation is contrary to the letter and the spirit of Convention No. 81 and must therefore be remedied by measures ensuring the reorientation of the labour inspection function in compliance with the requirements of the Convention. Noting that Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs Order No. 111 of 1998 provides for participation of representatives of the central labour inspection administration in the preparatory commission for labour inspector training sessions, the Committee trusts that, in accordance with the spirit of Article 7 of the Convention, these programmes will relate in future to improving inspectors’ capacities to carry out the work inherent in supervision of legislation relating to labour conditions and protection of workers and that information indicating developments in this direction will soon be supplied to the ILO.

The Committee cannot overemphasize the value of ensuring that the labour inspection is directed principally at functions ensuring the application of legal provisions relating to conditions of work and protection of workers and is freed from any other function constituting an obstacle to the performance of these functions, as would seem to be the case in regard to hygiene control of food in commercial catering and the control of documents relating to movement of migrant workers. The Committee hopes that the Government will take measures to this end and that information on progress in this direction will soon be supplied to the ILO, including statistical data included in the annual inspection report.

The Committee reminds the Government that it also addressed a direct request to it, which read as follows:

Referring to its observation and to its previous comments (1999), the Committee notes once again that, according to the statistics compilation for 2004, one of the high-risk branches of employment for the health and safety of workers is the one shown in the tables under the heading “Community services and social services”. In it there have been 101 industrial accidents resulting in permanent disability for 117 workers. As the Government has not supplied the details requested allowing the risks faced by workers to be identified, the Committee would be grateful if it would do so in a full and detailed manner in its next report.

The Committee hopes that the Government will not fail to take the requested measures and to keep the Office duly informed.