"In accordance with the Joint
Declaration of the Government of the People's Republic of China and the
Government of the Republic of Portugal on the Question of Macao signed on 13
April 1987, the Government of the People's Republic of China will resume the
exercise of sovereignty over Macao with effect from 20 December 1999. Macao
will, with effect from that date, become a Special Administrative Region of the
People's Republic of China and will enjoy a high degree of autonomy, except in foreign
and defence affairs which are the responsibilities of the Central People's
Government of the People's Republic of China.
In this connection, I am instructed by the
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China to inform Your
Excellency of the following:
Convention concerning the Creation of
Minimum Wage-fixing Machinery (No. 26), 1928, (hereinafter referred to as the
"Convention"), to which the Government of the People's Republic of
China acceded on 11 July 1984, will apply to the Macao Special Administrative
Region with effect from 20 December 1999.
The Government of the People's Republic of
China will assume the responsibility for the international rights and
obligations arising from the application of the Convention to the Macao Special
Administrative Region."
Convention concerning the Creation of Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery
(ILO No. 26)
(Adopted at Geneva on 16
June 1928)
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 Eleventh Session on 30 May 1928, and
Having decided upon
the adoption of certain proposals with regard to minimum wage-fixing machinery,
which is the first item on the agenda of the Session, and
Having determined
that these proposals should take the form of an international Convention,
adopts this
sixteenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and twenty-eight
the following Convention, which may be cited as the Minimum Wage-Fixing
Machinery Convention, 1928, for ratification by the Members of the
International Labour Organisation in accordance with the provisions of the
Constitution of the International Labour Organisation:
Article 1
1. Each Member of
the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this Convention undertakes
to create or maintain machinery whereby minimum rates of wages can be fixed for
workers employed in certain of the trades or parts of trades (and in particular
in home working trades) in which no arrangements exist for the effective
regulation of wages by collective agreement or otherwise and wages are
exceptionally low.
2. For the purpose
of this Convention, the term trades includes manufacture and
commerce.
Article 2
Each Member which
ratifies this Convention shall be free to decide, after consultation with the
organisations, if any, of workers and employers in the trade or part of trade
concerned, in which trades or parts of trades, and in particular in which home
working trades or parts of such trades, the minimum wage-fixing machinery
referred to in Article 1 shall be applied.
Article 3
1. Each Member
which ratifies this Convention shall be free to decide the nature and form of
the minimum wage-fixing machinery, and the methods to be followed in its
operation:
2. Provided that--
(1) before the
machinery is applied in a trade or part of trade, representatives of the
employers and workers concerned, including representatives of their respective
organisations, if any, shall be consulted as well as any other persons, being
specially qualified for the purpose by their trade or functions, whom the
competent authority deems it expedient to consult;
(2) the employers
and workers concerned shall be associated in the operation of the machinery, in
such manner and to such extent, but in any case in equal numbers and on equal
terms, as may be determined by national laws or regulations;
(3) minimum rates
of wages which have been fixed shall be binding on the employers and workers
concerned so as not to be subject to abatement by them by individual agreement,
nor, except with general or particular authorisation of the competent
authority, by collective agreement.
Article 4
1. Each Member
which ratifies this Convention shall take the necessary measures, by way of a
system of supervision and sanctions, to ensure that the employers and workers
concerned are informed of the minimum rates of wages in force and that wages
are not paid at less than these rates in cases where they are applicable.
2. A worker to whom
the minimum rates are applicable and who has been paid wages at less than these
rates shall be entitled to recover, by judicial or other legalised proceedings,
the amount by which he has been underpaid, subject to such limitation of time
as may be determined by national laws or regulations.
Article 5
Each Member which
ratifies this Convention shall communicate annually to the International Labour
Office a general statement giving a list of the trades or parts of trades in
which the minimum wage-fixing machinery has been applied, indicating the
methods as well as the results of the application of the machinery and, in
summary form, the approximate numbers of workers covered, the minimum rates of
wages fixed, and the more important of the other conditions, if any,
established relevant to the minimum rates.
Article 6
The formal
ratifications of this Convention under the conditions set forth in the
Constitution of the International Labour Organisation shall be communicated to
the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration.
Article 7
1. This Convention
shall be binding only upon those Members whose ratifications have been
registered with the International Labour Office.
2. It shall come
into force twelve months after the date on which the ratifications of two
Members of the International Labour Organisation 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 be registered.
Article 8
As soon as the
ratifications of two Members of the International Labour Organisation have been
registered with the International Labour Office, the Director-General of the
International Labour Office shall so notify all the Members of the
International Labour Organisation. He shall likewise notify them of the
registration of the ratifications which may be communicated subsequently by
other Members of the Organisation.
Article 9
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 with the International Labour Office.
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 five years and, thereafter, may denounce
this Convention at the expiration of each period of five years under the terms
provided for in this Article.
Article 10
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 11
The French and
English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.