Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2018, published 108th ILC session (2019)

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Guinea - Bissau (Ratification: 1977)

The Committee notes with deep concern that the Government’s report has not been received. It is therefore bound to repeat its previous comments initially made in 2013.

Repetition

Articles 3(1), 7(3), 10, 11, 14 and 16 of the Convention. Functioning of the labour inspection system. The Committee notes that the application of the Convention faces significant and persistent challenges of a financial and material nature. It notes, for instance, that there are too few inspectors and that the General Labour and Social Security Inspectorate has inadequate means of transport. The Committee is also led to believe that the Government is not in a position to provide labour inspectors with adequate training for the performance of their duties, in accordance with Article 7(3) of the Convention. It notes, however, that the inspectors benefited from a number of training activities under the subregion’s technical cooperation framework pertaining to labour inspection structures and under the Community of Portuguese-speaking countries (CPLP). The Government also refers to difficulties inherent in gathering reliable data on industrial accidents and cases of occupational diseases, which may be attributed to the under-reporting of workers themselves. The Government is also trying to create conditions that will enable it to send on a regular basis the information available on each of the questions listed under Article 21 and in the format stipulated under Article 20, but it is encountering difficulties of various kinds and would therefore require the ILO’s technical assistance for this purpose. The Committee asks the Government to submit a formal request to the ILO for technical assistance with a view to drafting and publishing an annual inspection report, as provided for under Articles 20 and 21 of the Convention, and to envisage extending this request to the collection and recording of statistical information on industrial accidents and cases of occupational diseases, and to the establishment of a system to assess the labour inspection services, with a view to determining the measures to be introduced to improve its efficiency. The Committee requests the Government to submit in its next report information on any developments in this area.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.

The Committee expects that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the near future.