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

Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) - Saudi Arabia (Ratification: 1978)

Article 11 of the Convention. The Committee notes with interest from the annual labour inspection report that in 2015, 572 new vehicles and 500 new communication devices were acquired.

Article 14. Notification of cases of occupational disease. The Committee notes that the number of cases of occupational disease contained in the 2017 annual labour inspection report is very low (only four cases out of 20.2 million workers). The Committee requests the Government to describe the procedure for the notification of cases of occupational disease to the labour inspectorate. It also requests the Government to provide information on any measures introduced to improve the detection and identification of cases of occupational disease as well as their notification to the labour inspectorate, including any efforts to collect information from countries that provide the largest numbers of migrant workers.

Articles 20 and 21. Content of the annual labour inspection reports. The Committee recalls the conclusions of the discussion in the Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS) of the International Labour Conference at its 100th Session (June 2011) concerning the application of this Convention by Saudi Arabia, which emphasized the need to improve the availability of statistical information to evaluate the level of compliance with the Convention. In this regard, the Committee notes with interest that the Government has regularly communicated annual labour inspection reports in recent years. In this respect, the Committee notes that the 2017 annual labour inspection report includes statistics on the number of labour inspectors, the number of workplaces liable to inspection and the workers employed therein, the number of labour inspection visits undertaken, violations detected, and statistics of industrial accidents and cases of occupational disease. However, the Committee notes that no information is provided on the actual penalties imposed (as required by Article 21(e) of the Convention). The Committee encourages the Government to continue to take the necessary measures to ensure the publication and communication of annual labour inspection reports to the ILO, and requests it to ensure that they contain information on the actual penalties imposed as part of the information required under Article 21(a)–(g) of the Convention.