News & Events 2011

News & Events 2010

The Head of NLI met with journalists

Presentation of awards named after Halina Krahelska at the Parliament

Learning how to walk
on scaffolding

Committees’ positive opinion
on NLI’s report

Launch of a public campaign
focused on construction

Meeting of Polish and Lithuanian
inspectors

Members of Parliament support
motions for law amendments

Parliamentary Committee discussed
inspections of drivers’ working time

Chief Labour Inspector presented
NLI’s report for 2009

Conference on illegal employment
of foreigners

Chief Labour Inspector
presented Grand Prix SAWO

Conference on fighting
forced labour

High assessment of effects
of the OSH programme

There will be legislative amendments
proposed by NLI

Labour Protection Council talked
about safety in construction

Parliamentary Committee voted
for eliminating obstacles
to inspections

Jubilee on the 60th anniversary
of the social labour inspection

Members of Parliament accepted
the Labour Inspectorate’s
programme of activities

District Labour Inspectorates

Contact

The NLI`s Training Centre

Conference on fighting forced labour

On 8 and 9 April 2010, the NLI’s Training Centre in Wrocław was the venue of an international discussion on the role of labour inspection in fighting forced labour. The conference on that subject was organized by the National Labour Inspectorate in cooperation with the Italian Department of Equal Opportunities and International Labour Organization within the framework of the project “Transnational Multi-Stakeholder Action to combat trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation. Identification and protection of victims”. The project is financed by the European Commission and is implemented with the involvement of authorities from Italy, Poland, Romania and Portugal.

The project covers countries which are transit territories for human trafficking. The main objective is to initiate and strengthen cooperation between organizations fighting that crime and gain commitment of new institutions that could effectively contribute to counteracting the problem. These are actually labour inspectorates. Yet, as emphasised by Valerie Quadri from the Department of Equal Opportunities (DEO), which coordinates, plans and finances programmes to combat human trafficking – labour inspectorate’s commitment and impact depends on inspectors’ awareness, therefore it is so important to make them realise that they can and should play an important role in eliminating human trafficking and labour exploitation.

During the seminar, Deputy Chief Labour Inspector dr Marian Liwo stressed that forced labour is a modern form of slavery, which, along with human trafficking and terrorism, is among increasingly common, sadly dramatic signs of our times. He stated that to solve such problems, one must seek the widest range of possible solutions and regard the labour inspectorate’s fight against illegal employment as one of such solutions. Border Guards have also been involved in it, and thus invited to attend the seminar.

2009 saw the beginning of work on a handbook for labour inspectors, titled “Forced labour and human trafficking”. Usefulness of the handbook was analysed at the seminar in Wrocław. Its participants took part in developing recommendations for adapting the handbook to the actual situation in our country.

The seminar was also an opportunity to present national plans for combating forced labour and human trafficking with reference to existing challenges, needs and tools of the International Labour Organization. Those, as well as key aspects of fighting forced labour, were discussed by René Robert, official from the ILO’s Programme on Labour Administration and Labour Inspection. He said that the Polish inspectorate was very active and committed to combating forced labour. In his opinion, in order to increase the labour inspectorate’s effectiveness in that area, monitoring should be intensified, communication enhanced, actions of inspectorates and labour administration authorities should be coordinated, and information channels to protect the victims should be created in cooperation with social partners. The speaker from ILO mentioned the necessity to improve effectiveness of actions by: imposing strict penalties for offenders, publishing information on law infringements and perpetrators in the mass media, and enforcing the law without delay so as to protect victims and discourage perpetrators.

Anne Pawletta, ILO expert on human trafficking and forced labour spoke about the role of labour inspectors in Europe in fighting human trafficking and forced labour. She underlined an important role of the labour inspectorate to counteract forced labour, because labour inspectors have first-hand information and the power to conduct an inspection visit at any time and place. Among the relevant practical issues, Anne Pawletta mentioned effective and clearly specified cooperation between labour inspectorates and other services, such as: the Police, Border Guards and tax authorities. It is also important to ensure adequate safety to inspectors monitoring the problem of forced labour. Identification of the phenomenon of forced labour can be increased thanks to labour inspectors’ creativity – infiltration of the milieu, application of various sublime inspection methods, and gathering information from various sources.