Guide issued to simplify labour inspection work
THE rates of factories and manufacturing enterprises found to be non-compliant with the laws are on the decline, Minister of Labour and Vocational Training Ith Samheng revealed as he introduced new job inspection handbooks that he said are part of a roadmap to more effective labour inspection.
Samheng was addressing the December 12 launch ceremony of the handbooks, which have been introduced to improve working conditions and the harmony of professional relationships in line with the strategic plan for labour development and vocational training 2019-2023.
The books are one of the achievements of the project by Germany’s international development agency GIZ, and will contribute to improving labour inspections by serving as indispensable baseline documents.
“In the first nine months of the year, we carried out 3,464 job inspections,” he said.
He added that based upon the results of the inspections, the ministry had determined that far fewer employers were in breach of regulations than had been in the past.
The ministry has trained many civil servants in the labour sector who are now effective job inspectors, medical inspectors and governance specialists. It had also elevated some inspectors to the level of judicial police officials.
Samheng hoped that all relevant actors would utilise the new handbooks and respect the laws and regulations in force.
The ministry had revised job inspection mechanisms by merging labour inspection units and modernising internal job inspections to improve working conditions, he said.
He added that the revisions had been made to reduce disruption of business operations, reduce the burden on the factory owners and ensure efficiency and compliance with the laws and standard documents, while focusing on the risk levels of each factory.
At the 18th GovernmentPrivate Sector Partnership Forum in 2019, the government set out reform mechanisms which included interinstitution inspection teams that would only need to make one visit to each factory.
Each merged team would make one inspection a year, except for unusual cases or offences.
The ministry established dedicated inspection teams for three sectors: manufacturing, agriculture and tourism.
The ministries of labour, environment, and industry, science, technology and innovation are responsible for manufacturing. Agriculture was the remit of the ministries of labour, environment, and agriculture, forestry and fisheries. Tourism inspection teams are made up of officials from the ministries of labour, tourism and health.