Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

The widespread adoption of the Internet and other digital means has had a profound impact on how governments, including labour administration and inspection bodies, manage and deliver their services. It has also impacted on policy making, particularly with regard to the increased availability and accessibility of data, not only for policy makers, but also the general public itself.  To confirm the optimistic proclamations of the e-government literature concerning the impact of ICT on the efficiency and effectiveness of government processes, the ILO launched a world-wide survey in early 2015. This survey will map the experiences of Member States regarding the introduction of ICT in labour administration matters, with a special focus on the area of compliance with labour laws, in both developed and developing countries.  This survey will advance understanding of the real benefits that ICT has to offer in areas such as transparency and accountability, the collection and analysis of data for policy making and evaluation, the speed of delivery of labour-related services and the quality of management through the automated reporting of results against predetermined objectives. It will also shed more light on the use of the many different ICT tools and channels available. The survey primarily focuses on three particular fields of labour administration: labour inspection, employment services, and dispute settlement.  The survey should also help to better understand the challenges faced by labour administration during the introduction of new technologies, especially within developing, but also developed countries, and help to define better approaches of technical cooperation in this field.