- The international Labour Office
This is the third major and important organ of the ILO. It functions as the secretariat of the ILO in Geneva. The Director of General of the ILO is the Chief Executive of the Secretarial. He is appointed by the Governing body. He also acts as the Secretary General of the ILO conference. His tenure is for 10 years and his term may be extended by the governing body. The Director General is assisted by two Deputy Director Generals, six Assistant Director Generals and by one Director of the International Institute of Labour Studies, One Director of the International Center of Advanced Technical and Vocational Training and of the Staff drawn form 100 nations.
The Functions of International Labour Office are:
i. To prepare documents on the times of the agency for the conference
ii. To assist governments in forming legislations on the basis of the decisions of the ILC
iii. To carry out its functions related to the observance of the conventions
iv. To bring out publications dealing with industrial labour problems of international interest.
v. To collect and distribute information of international labour and social problems.
vi. The ILO instruments have provided guidelines and a useful framework for the evolution of legislative and administrative measures for the protection and advancement of the interest of labour. To that extent the influence of ILO Conventions as a standard of reference for labour legislation and practices in India, rather than as a legally binding norm, has been significant. Ratification of a Convention imposes legally binding obligations on the country concerned and, therefore, India has been careful in ratifying Conventions. It has always been the practice in India that we ratify a Convention when we are fully satisfied that our laws and practices are in conformity with the relevant ILO Convention. It is now considered that a better course of action is to proceed with progressive implementation of the standards, leave the formal ratification for consideration at a later stage when it becomes practicable. We have so far ratified 41 Conventions of the ILO, which is much better than the position existing in many other countries. Even where for special reasons, India may not be in a position to ratify a Convention, India has generally voted in favour of the Conventions reserving its position as far as its future ratification is concerned.
Core Conventions of the ILO: – The eight Core Conventions of the ILO (also called fundamental/human rights conventions) are:
- Forced Labour Convention (No. 29)
- Abolition of Forced Labour Convention (No.105)
- Equal Remuneration Convention (No.100)
- Discrimination (Employment Occupation) Convention (No.111)
(The above four have been ratified by India)
- Freedom of Association and Protection of Right to Organized Convention (No.87)
- Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention (No.98)
- Minimum Age Convention (No.138)
- Worst forms of Child Labour Convention (No.182)
(These four have not been ratified by India)
Consequent to the World Summit for Social Development in 1995, the above-mentioned Conventions (Sl.No. 1 to 7) were categorized as the Fundamental Human Rights Conventions or Core Conventions by the ILO. Later on, Convention No.182 (Sl.No.8) was added to the list.
As per the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-up, each Member State of the ILO is expected to give effect to the principles contained in the Core Conventions of the ILO, irrespective of whether or not the Core Conventions have been ratified by them.
Under the reporting procedure of the ILO, detailed reports are due from the member States that have ratified the priority Conventions and the Core Conventions every two years. Under the Follow-up to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, a report is to be made by each Member State every year on those Core Conventions that it has not yet ratified.
