Convention concerning Labour Administration: Role, Functions and Organisation

(ILO No. 150)

(Adopted at Geneva on 26 June 1978)

The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,

Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Sixty-fourth Session on 7 June 1978, and

Recalling the terms of existing international labour Conventions and Recommendations, including in particular the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947, the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969, and the Employment Service Convention, 1948, which call for the exercise of particular labour administration activities, and

Considering it desirable to adopt instruments establishing guidelines regarding the over-all system of labour administration, and

Recalling the terms of the Employment Policy Convention, 1964, and of the Human Resources Development Convention, 1975; recalling also the goal of the creation of full and adequately remunerated employment and affirming the need for programmes of labour administration to work towards this goal and to give effect to the objectives of the said Conventions, and

Recognising the necessity of fully respecting the autonomy of employers' and workers' organisations, recalling in this connection the terms of existing international labour Conventions and Recommendations guaranteeing rights of association, organisation and collective bargaining--and particularly the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948, and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949--which forbid any interference by public authorities which would restrict these rights or impede the lawful exercise thereof, and considering that employers' and workers' organisations have essential roles in attaining the objectives of economic, social and cultural progress, and

Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to labour administration: role, functions and organisation, which is the fourth item on the agenda of the session, and

Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an international Convention,

adopts this twenty-sixth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight the following Convention, which may be cited as the Labour Administration Convention, 1978:

Article 1

For the purpose of this Convention--

(a) the term labour administration means public administration activities in the field of national labour policy;

(b) the term system of labour administration covers all public administration bodies responsible for and/or engaged in labour administration--whether they are ministerial departments or public agencies, including parastatal and regional or local agencies or any other form of decentralised administration --and any institutional framework for the co-ordination of the activities of such bodies and for consultation with and participation by employers and workers and their organisations.

Article 2

A Member which ratifies this Convention may, in accordance with national laws or regulations, or national practice, delegate or entrust certain activities of labour administration to non-governmental organisations, particularly employers' and workers' organisations, or--where appropriate--to employers' and workers' representatives.

Article 3

A Member which ratifies this Convention may regard particular activities in the field of its national labour policy as being matters which, in accordance with national laws or regulations, or national practice, are regulated by having recourse to direct negotiations between employers' and workers' organisations.

Article 4

Each Member which ratifies this Convention shall, in a manner appropriate to national conditions, ensure the organisation and effective operation in its territory of a system of labour administration, the functions and responsibilities of which are properly co-ordinated.

Article 5

1. Each Member which ratifies this Convention shall make arrangements appropriate to national conditions to secure, within the system of labour administration, consultation, co-operation and negotiation between the public authorities and the most representative organisations of employers and workers, or--where appropriate--employers' and workers' representatives.

2. To the extent compatible with national laws and regulations, and national practice, such arrangements shall be made at the national, regional and local levels as well as at the level of the different sectors of economic activity.

Article 6

1. The competent bodies within the system of labour administration shall, as appropriate, be responsible for or contribute to the preparation, administration, co-ordination, checking and review of national labour policy, and be the instrument within the ambit of public administration for the preparation and implementation of laws and regulations giving effect thereto.

2. In particular, these bodies, taking into account international labour standards, shall--

(a) participate in the preparation, administration, co-ordination, checking and review of national employment policy, in accordance with national laws and regulations, and national practice;

(b) study and keep under review the situation of employed, unemployed and underemployed persons, taking into account national laws and regulations and national practice concerning conditions of work and working life and terms of employment, draw attention to defects and abuses in such conditions and terms and submit proposals on means to overcome them;

(c) make their services available to employers and workers, and their respective organisations, as may be appropriate under national laws or regulations, or national practice, with a view to the promotion--at national, regional and local levels as well as at the level of the different sectors of economic activity --of effective consultation and co-operation between public authorities and bodies and employers' and workers' organisations, as well as between such organisations;

(d) make technical advice available to employers and workers and their respective organisations on their request.

Article 7

When national conditions so require, with a view to meeting the needs of the largest possible number of workers, and in so far as such activities are not already covered, each Member which ratifies this Convention shall promote the extension, by gradual stages if necessary, of the functions of the system of labour administration to include activities, to be carried out in co-operation with other competent bodies, relating to the conditions of work and working life of appropriate categories of workers who are not, in law, employed persons, such as--

(a) tenants who do not engage outside help, sharecroppers and similar categories of agricultural workers;

(b) self-employed workers who do not engage outside help, occupied in the informal sector as understood in national practice;

(c) members of co-operatives and worker-managed undertakings;

(d) persons working under systems established by communal customs or traditions.

Article 8

To the extent compatible with national laws and regulations and national practice, the competent bodies within the system of labour administration shall contribute to the preparation of national policy concerning international labour affairs, participate in the representation of the State with respect to such affairs and contribute to the preparation of measures to be taken at the national level with respect thereto.

Article 9

With a view to the proper co-ordination of the functions and responsibilities of the system of labour administration, in a manner determined by national laws or regulations, or national practice, a ministry of labour or another comparable body shall have the means to ascertain whether any parastatal agencies which may be responsible for particular labour administration activities, and any regional or local agencies to which particular labour administration activities may have been delegated, are operating in accordance with national laws and regulations and are adhering to the objectives assigned to them.

Article 10

1. The staff of the labour administration system shall be composed of persons who are suitably qualified for the activities to which they are assigned, who have access to training necessary for such activities and who are independent of improper external influences.

2. Such staff shall have the status, the material means and the financial resources necessary for the effective performance of their duties.

Article 11

The formal ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration.

Article 12

1. This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the International Labour Organisation whose ratifications have been registered with the Director-General.

2. It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the ratifications of two Members have been registered with the Director-General.

3. Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member twelve months after the date on which its ratification has been registered.

Article 13

1. A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes into force, by an act communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until one year after the date on which it is registered.

2. Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does not, within the year following the expiration of the period of ten years mentioned in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for in this Article, will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter, may denounce this Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years under the terms provided for in this Article.

Article 14

1. The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall notify all Members of the International Labour Organisation of the registration of all ratifications and denunciations communicated to him by the Members of the Organisation.

2. When notifying the Members of the Organisation of the registration of the second ratification communicated to him, the Director-General shall draw the attention of the Members of the Organisation to the date upon which the Convention will come into force.

Article 15

The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall communicate to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for registration in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations full particulars of all ratifications and acts of denunciation registered by him in accordance with the provisions of the preceding Articles.

Article 16

At such times as it may consider necessary the Governing Body of the International Labour Office shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this Convention and shall examine the desirability of placing on the agenda of the Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.

Article 17

1. Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention in whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise provides:

a) the ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention shall ipso jure involve the immediate denunciation of this Convention, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 13 above, if and when the new revising Convention shall have come into force;

b) as from the date when the new revising Convention comes into force this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification by the Members.

2. This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual form and content for those Members which have ratified it but have not ratified the revising Convention.

Article 18

The English and French versions of the text of this Convention are equally authoritative.