Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Malawi (Ratification: 1965)

The Committee notes with regret that the Government’s report has not been received. It hopes that a report will be supplied for examination by the Committee at its next session and that it will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous direct request, which read as follows:

The Committee refers the Government to its observation and requests it to provide additional information on the following matters.

Article 7 of the Convention. Training and further training for labour inspectors. Please state whether Act No. 6 of 1999 on Technical, Entrepreneurial and Vocational Education and Training, under which the State participates in the training and retraining of public sector employees, applies also to labour inspectors.

Labour inspection in the context of combating child labour. Please provide details of these activities and their results, indicating if possible the sectors of activity targeted, the number and nature of the infringements reported and the penalties imposed and actually applied.

Article 11. Transport facilities for labour inspectors and equipment for inspection offices. Please indicate the measures taken to ensure that the inspection services, which now have motorcycles or motor vehicles for use in their work, also have the necessary funds for their maintenance and the purchase of fuel. Please describe the material working conditions in all the inspectorates’ premises, in terms of offices, typewriters, paper, ink cartridges, inspection forms, etc. and provide the corresponding budgetary information.

Article 15(c). Confidentiality regarding sources of complaints. Please provide details of the measures taken to ensure that workers employed in establishments covered by the Convention have access to the labour offices and that confidentiality is observed in respect of the content of their interviews or their mail, in order to avoid any risk of reprisals by the employer following a complaint or the reporting of a defect. Please indicate the action taken in law and in practice on the infringements indicated by the MCTU.

Article 14. Notification and recording of industrial accidents and cases of occupational disease. While noting that section 66 of Act No. 21 of 1997 provides that the Director of Occupational Safety and Health must be informed of any accidents causing the death of a worker or disabling a person from carrying out normal duties at the workplace, the Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether labour inspectors are informed of such accidents and whether measures are taken to determine the causes and prevent any recurrence.