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

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Uganda (Ratification: 1963)

With reference also to its observation on the Convention, the Committee draws the Government’s attention to the following points.

Supervision and control of the labour inspectorate by a central authority (Articles 4, 5, 6 and 10 of the Convention); annual inspection report (Articles 20 and 21).  The Committee notes that the power conferred since 1994 on district authorities to decide whether to establish an inspection structure to recruit and manage labour inspectors is in contradiction with the objective of the Convention, which is to ensure a coordinated and effective labour inspection system throughout the national territory under the supervision and control of a central authority. However, the disparities in the status and conditions of service of labour inspectors operating in the offices established in 21 of the 45 districts in no way permits the establishment of such a system, and the precarity of inspectors is incompatible with the requirement of authority and impartiality which are indispensable in the relations that inspectors should maintain with employers and workers. The Committee also notes that the periodic inspection reports provided to the Ministry of Labour by a small number of district offices cannot provide the latter with the means of making an overall assessment of the level of application of labour legislation in workplaces liable to inspection and are not adequate to serve as a basis for the preparation of an annual report, as required by Article 20. The Committee reminds the Government that, under the terms of Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention, the system of labour inspection shall apply to all workplaces in respect of which legal provisions relating to conditions of work and the protection of workers while engaged in their work are enforceable by labour inspectors, and that the annual report, the contents of which are set out in Article 21(a) to (g), has the objective of providing a regular assessment of the situation with a view to determining the action to be taken for its improvement. The Committee also invites the Government in this respect to refer to paragraph 273 et seq. of its 1985 General Survey on the value at both the national and international levels of preparing, publishing and forwarding such a report to the ILO. It hopes that the Government will commence without delay a process of reflection at the local, regional and national levels on the manner in which the Convention should be applied and that it will associate in this process the social partners, ministerial departments and public and private bodies concerned. It would be grateful if the Government would provide information regularly on the action envisaged to establish a labour inspection system placed under the supervision and control of a central authority and involving cooperation and collaboration with the social partners and the above institutions.