Signing of the agreement with the Portuguese labour inspectorate

On 1 September 2008 in Warsaw, Chief Labour Inspector Tadeusz Jan Zając and General Labour Inspector of Portugal – Paolo Morgado de Carvalho, in the presence of their closest co-workers, signed the agreement on cooperation and mutual exchange of information. The agreement is to help both labour inspectorates tighten cooperation in enforcing legislation in the area of work safety and occupational health as well as other aspects of labour law.

The agreement is aimed at broadening previous contacts and strengthening relations between the National Labour Inspectorate and the Authority for Working Conditions (ACT) in Portugal, among others by: exchange of labour inspectors, experts and informational materials, organisation of practical training courses, conferences, symposia and international meetings. In addition, it stipulates development of shared projects involving the submission of applications to the European Union, the International Labour Organisation or other international organisations active in the area of labour as well as health and safety at work.

The parties to the agreement specified the following priorities of cooperation: exchange of information and practices concerning the transposition of EU Directives on occupational health and safety and law enforcement, inspections and assessment of health and safety indicators. Particular importance is also attached to the exchange of information covered by the provisions of Directive 96/71/EC of 16 December 1996 on the posting of workers within the framework of the provision of services.

The signing ceremony was preceded by a speech of the Head of Portuguese Labour Inspectorate Paolo Morgado de Carvalho who presented organization, tasks and competence of the institution under his management. Chief Labour Inspector, Tadeusz Jan Zając was interested in how the Portuguese partners manage to keep proper balance between inspection and preventative activity if the labour inspectorate is generally considered to be an authority associated with repressive measures. Paolo Morgado de Carvalho explained that in recent years ACT had developed an operational model close to the British one, in which both forms of activity, i.e. inspection and prevention complement one another without causing social tension.

Tadeusz Jan Zając expressed the hope that thanks to the implementation of the concluded agreement both partner authorities would make a sustainable contribution to the joined achievements of the European Union labour inspectorates.