Inspection du travail

The "Inspection du travail" (IT, "Labour inspection") is a French specialized body of civil servants, charged of the surveillance of labour law in firms, created in 1892 during the Third Republic.

History

The Labour inspection was officially created by the 19 May 1874 law during the Second Empire, establishing a body of 15 divisionary inspectors, and several departmental inspectors. However, they were not very efficient. Following the International Conference on Labour in Berlin on 15 March 1890, envisioning the creation of an international labour legislation, the Third Republic created by the 2 November 1892 law a specialized body of civil servants dedicated to inspection of labour conditions. It was first of all charged of the surveillance of the implementation of the 22 March 1841 law prohibiting child labour of less than 8 years old. This law had been enacted following reports by the physician René Villermé. The 1890 law also enacted a maximal length of work for children, women and underage girls.

The function was popularized by the inspector Pierre Hamp, who maintained a chronicle in "L'Humanité" newspaper from 1906 to 1912. Following the creation of the Ministry of Labour in 1906, the IT became one of its services.

In 1947, the 81st International Convention of the International Labour Organization forced all ratifying states to "organize a system of labour inspection". France ratified it under the Fourth Republic by a 10 August 1950 law.

On 2 September 2004, a farmer from Saussignac shot dead two labour inspectors, Sylvie Trémouille and Daniel Buffière. This led the inspectors to request better work conditions not only for others, but also for themselves.

Number of inspectors

According to the labour inspector Gérard Filoche, they are in 2004 427 inspectors and 813 "contrôleurs" charged of the application of 400 laws and 8,000 decrees. Each year, they established approximatively 25,000 "procès-verbaux", of which only a fourth lead to a sanction of the employer.

According to Luc Béal-Rainaldy, national secretary of the SNU-TEF (FSU), the European average is of 2,000 labour inspectors.

See also

*Occupational health and safety
*Labour and employment law

Bibliography

* « Comment devenir inspecteur du travail ? » Brochure éditée par le ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité
* « L'Inspection du travail » de Paul Ramackers et Laurent Vilboeuf, Que sais-je?, 1997
* « On achève bien les inspecteurs du travail... » de Gérard Filoche (inspecteur du travail), Jean-Claude Gawsevitch éditeur, 2004
* « Carnets d'un inspecteur du travail » de Gérard Filoche (inspecteur du travail), éditions Ramsay, 2004
* « Le travail jetable » de Gérard Filoche (inspecteur du travail), éditions Ramsay, 1997
* « L'inspecteur du travail », "Liaisons sociales", 11345, numéro spécial, décembre 1992
* « La création de l'inspection du travail: La condition ouvrière d'après les débats parlementaires de 1881 à 1892 » de William Grossin, L'Harmattan, 1990
* « Voltigeurs de la République : L'Inspection du travail en France jusqu'en 1914 » de V. Viet, CNRS editions, 2003
* « Inspecteurs et inspection du travail sous la IIIe et la IVe République » de Collectif, La documentation française, 1998
* « L'inspection du travail en France en 1998. les chiffres clés » de Collectif, La Documentation Française, 2000
* « L'Inspection du travail », Bureau international du travail, 2000
* Gérard Lyon-Caen et Jacques Pellissier, "Droit du travail", Dalloz, 1996
* Marie-Thérèse Join-Lambert, "Politiques sociales", Presses de Sciences-Po et Dalloz, 1997
* Marie-Thérèse Join-Lambert, "Pierre Hamp: inspecteur du travail et écrivain humaniste", L'Harmattan, 2006, ISBN : 2-7475-9668-0