The Inspection du travail (IT, Labour inspection) is a French specialized body of civil servants, charged of the surveillance of employment and labour law in firms, created in 1892 during the Third Republic.
The Labour inspection was officially created by the 19 May 1874 law during the Third Republic, 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.
In 1975, a law was introduced to limit and regulate redundancies making it compulsory for employers wishing to carry out redundancies to obtain the authorization of labour inspectors. This law was abolished in 1986 by Jacques Chirac administration.
During a routine inspection of seasonal workers on a vineyard[1] on 2 September 2004, Claude Duviau, a farmer from Saussignac shot and killed two labour inspectors, Sylvie Trémouille and Daniel Buffière.[2] Duviau was later found guilty of murder and sentenced to 30 years in prison.[2] He died in custody on 26 January 2016.[2] The shooting led to a nation-wide debate on labour inspectors' work conditions in France.[1]
There are in 2010 600 Labour Inspectors and 1219 controllers. Each year, they established approximatively 16.000 procès-verbaux, of which only a fourth lead to a sanction of the employer.
Labor inspectors take an 18-month paid training course at the Institut national du travail, de l'emploi et de la formation professionnelle (INTEFP) in Marcy-l'Étoile (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes) near Lyon. The labor inspector exam is one of the most selective category A administrative exams, with a success rate of just 6.75% in 2018.[3]
The Institut national du travail, de l'emploi et de la formation professionnelle (INTEFP) was created in 1975, first at 83 boulevard Pasteur in Paris, then at 21 rue de la Vanne in Montrouge, before moving to Lyon in 1980.[4] Under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Labor, the school became a public administrative establishment on January 1, 2006, under Decree no. 2005-1555 of December 13, 2005.