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Labour Legislations

Notes Con.Nos.115 and 136, in safety provisions of Factories Act, 1948 and laws dealing with pollution.
The provisions of the Protection against Accidents (Dockers) Con.(No.32),1934, which has also
been ratified by India have been covered by the Indian Dock Laborers Act, 1934.
Existing safety and health provisions of labour laws relating to factories, mines, docks, and
others also contain many provisions of a few other Conventions and Recommendations. Some
of these are, Prevention of Industrial Accidents Rec.(No.31),1929, Power-driven Machinery
Rec.(No.32),1929, Labour Inspection Rec. (No.20), 1923, Guarding of Machinery Con.(No.119),1963,
Occupational Safety and Health Con.(No.155),1981 and Industrial Accidents Con. (No.174),1993.
A few protective labour laws, also contain certain provisions of Welfare Facilities
Rec.(No.102),1956 and Workers' Housing Rec. (No.115),1961.

2.6.5 Social Security

The International Labour Conference has given serious attention to the problems of social
security against various risks to which workers are exposed. A number of Conventions and
Recommendations deal with workmen's compensation, sickness insurance, invalidity, old age
and survivors' insurance, unemployment provisions, maternity protection and general aspects
of social security.
Convention No.17 provides that workmen should receive compensation for personal injury
caused due to industrial accident. Compensation for death or permanent disablement should be
in the form of periodical payments and injured workmen should be entitled to receive necessary
medical aid. Recommendation No. 22 suggests certain scales of compensation.
Convention No.18, subsequently revised by Con. No.42, provides for the payment of
compensation to workmen incapacitated by certain occupational diseases. In the event of death
resulting from such occupational diseases, compensation should be paid to the dependants of
the deceased workmen.
The Sickness Insurance (Industry) Convention and Sickness Insurance (Agriculture) Con. (No.25),
both adopted in 1927, deal with sickness insurance of workers employed respectively in industry
and agriculture. Both the Conventions recommend the establishment of a system of compulsory
sickness insurance and provide for the payment of cash benefit for at least the first 26 weeks of
incapacity to insured persons who are unable to work owing to sickness. Insured persons should
also be made entitled to receive free medical aid from the commencement of illness until the
expiry of the benefit period.
In 1933, the International Labour Conference adopted a series of Conventions dealing with the
minimum conditions that ought to be complied with by every scheme of compulsory invalidity,
old age and survivors' insurance. All these Conventions provide that the right to pension may
be conditional upon successful completion of a qualifying period which may also involve
payment of a minimum number of contributions. The expenses of the schemes are to be met by
insured workers, employers and public authorities. The Invalidity, Old-Age and Survivors'
Insurance Rec., 1933 lays down the details of the scheme. Conventions Nos.35--40 were
subsequently revised by the Invalidity, Old-Age and Survivors' Benefits Con.(No.128), 1967.
The Unemployment Provisions Convention, 1934 deals with unemployment insurance, the
scheme of which may be compulsory, voluntary or a combination of both. The scheme provides
for the payment of unemployment benefit on the satisfaction of certain conditions, if necessary.
The duration of benefit may be limited to a period which is not normally to be less than 156
working days per year. The Unemployment Provisions Rec.(No.47),1934 deals with the scheme
of unemployment insurance.

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