Page 33 - DMGT516_LABOUR_LEGISLATIONS

Labour Legislations

Notes
Did u know? The ILO has 3 Regional Advisory committees - the Asian Advisory Committee,
the African Advisory Committee and the Inter-American Advisory Committee. The
International Institute of Labour studies were established in 1960 as a centre for advanced
studies in the social and labour fields. The work of ILO may be divided into three parts:
1. Legislative: Arising out of the conventions and recommendations adopted by the
International Labour Conference.

2. Operational: These activities pertain to technical assistance, including vocational
training programmes, provided and undertaken by the ILO in various parts of the
world.
3. General: The work of industrial committees, regional conferences, other committees
and commissions and the publications of the ILO.

2.3 Conventions and Recommendations

One of the principal functions of the International Labour Organisation is to secure international
minimum social and labour standards. These standards are embodied in resolutions in the form
of Conventions and Recommendations, adopted by the International Labour Conference by at
least 2/3rds of the delegates present at the conference and voting. The conference decides whether
these resolutions will take the form of a Convention or a Recommendation. Thus, Conventions
or Recommendations are instruments for creating and establishing international minimum
social and labour standards.

2.3.1 Conventions

A Convention imposes certain obligations. The member state is of an obligation under the
Constitution ILO to bring, within a period of one year at the most, or within 18 months in
exceptional cases, from the closing of the session of the conference, a Convention before the
authority, within whose competence the matter lies, for ratification. If so ratified, the Convention
acquires a binding character on the Member State, although a Member is free to ratify or not to
ratify a Convention, once it has been ratified by the appropriate authority of the Member State
concerned. It becomes obligatory on the part of the Member State to implement the Convention
by legislative or other appropriate measures and to communicate the formal ratification to the
Director General.
Further, after ratification, a Member State has to implement the Convention in toto, without
varying the provisions of the Convention in any respect, except when and where the Convention
itself makes provisions for variations. In case a Member State does not ratify a Convention, it is
under the obligation to report periodically, the position of law and practice in regard to the
matters dealt within the Convention, indicating the difficulties that prevent or delay the
ratification of such a Convention.

However, a Convention, even if ratified by a Member State, does not automatically become
binding unless it has secured a minimum number of ratifications. The number of ratifications
required to bring a Convention into force is fixed in each case by the terms of the Convention;
any two ratifications being sufficient in the great majority of cases.

2.3.2 Recommendations

A Recommendation is not an obligation creating instrument. It is intended to serve as a guide to
the Member States in respect of the minimum labour standards, concerning the subject matter of

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