Convention
concerning Employment Policy
(Note:
Date of coming into force: 15:07:1966.)
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
Forty-eighth Session on 17 June 1964, and
Considering that the Declaration of
Philadelphia recognises the solemn obligation of the International Labour
Organisation to further among the nations of the world programmes which will
achieve full employment and the raising of standards of living, and that the
Preamble to the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation provides
for the prevention of unemployment and the provision of an adequate living
wage, and
Considering further that under the
terms of the Declaration of Philadelphia it is the responsibility of the
International Labour Organisation to examine and consider the bearing of economic
and financial policies upon employment policy in the light of the fundamental
objective that all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the
right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development
in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal
opportunity, and
Considering that the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights provides that everyone has the right to work, to
free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection
against unemployment, and
Noting the terms of existing
international labour Conventions and Recommendations of direct relevance to
employment policy, and in particular of the Employment Service Convention and
Recommendation, 1948, the Vocational Guidance Recommendation, 1949, the
Vocational Training Recommendation, 1962, and the Discrimination (Employment
and Occupation) Convention and Recommendation, 1958, and
Considering that these instruments
should be placed in the wider framework of an international programme for
economic expansion on the basis of full, productive and freely chosen
employment, and
Having decided upon the adoption of
certain proposals with regard to employment policy, which are included in the
eighth item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals
shall take the form of an international Convention,
adopts the ninth day of July of the
year one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four, the following Convention, which
may be cited as the Employment Policy Convention, 1964:
Article 1
1. With a view to stimulating economic
growth and development, raising levels of living, meeting manpower requirements
and overcoming unemployment and underemployment, each Member shall declare and
pursue, as a major goal, an active policy designed to promote full, productive
and freely chosen employment.
2. The said policy shall aim at
ensuring that--
(a) there is work for all who are
available for and seeking work;
(b) such work is as productive as
possible;
(c) there is freedom of choice of
employment and the fullest possible opportunity for each worker to qualify for,
and to use his skills and endowments in, a job for which he is well suited,
irrespective of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction
or social origin.
3. The said policy shall take due
account of the stage and level of economic development and the mutual
relationships between employment objectives and other economic and social
objectives, and shall be pursued by methods that are appropriate to national
conditions and practices.
Article 2
Each Member shall, by such methods and
to such extent as may be appropriate under national conditions--
(a) decide on and keep under review,
within the framework of a co-ordinated economic and social policy, the measures
to be adopted for attaining the objectives specified in Article 1;
(b) take such steps as may be needed,
including when appropriate the establishment of programmes, for the application
of these measures.
Article 3
In the application of this Convention,
representatives of the persons affected by the measures to be taken, and in
particular representatives of employers and workers, shall be consulted
concerning employment policies, with a view to taking fully into account their
experience and views and securing their full co-operation in formulating and
enlisting support for such policies.
Article 4
The formal ratifications of this
Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General of the International
Labour Office for registration.
Article 5
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
ratifications has been registered.
Article 6
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 should 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 7
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 8
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 9
At such times as 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 10
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 6 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 11
The English and French versions of the
text of this Convention are equally authoritative.