1. Anjara Irina RAZAFINDRABE
Andrianina ANDRIANOMENJANAHARY

2. • Understand what International Labour Standards (ILS)
are and how they are created and supervised
• Introduce the International Labour Organisation
Fundamental (Core) Conventions
• Introduce the principles of universality and flexibility of
ILS
• Outline the use and application of ILS

5. • International Labour Organization maintains and
develops a system of International Labour Standards
(ILS)
• ILS aim to promote opportunities for men and women to
obtain decent and productive work in conditions of
freedom, equity, security and dignity.
• The ILO asserts that International Labour Standards
are essential component for ensuring that the growth of
the global economy provides benefits to all.

6. • what are international labour standards?
• How are they created; applied; and supervised?

7. • ILS are legal instruments drawn up by the ILO’s
constituents (governments, employers and
workers) setting out basic principles and rights at
work.
• ILS take two forms:
• conventions, which are legally binding international treaties that
may be ratified by member states,
• recommendations, which serve as non-binding guidelines.

8. • In many cases, a convention lays down the basic
principles to be implemented by ratifying countries, while
a related recommendation supplements the convention
by providing more detailed guidelines on how it could be
applied.
• Recommendations can also be autonomous, i.e: not
linked to any convention.

9. • International Labour Standards (both conventions and
recommendations) are drawn up by representatives of
governments, employers and workers and are adopted at
the ILO’s annual International Labour Conference.
• Once adopted, a standard have to be submitted by the
member states to their competent authority (normally the
parliament) for consideration.

10. • Ratification of ILO conventions are voluntary.
• Ratification is a formal procedure whereby a state
accepts the convention as a legally binding instrument. A
country is subject to the ILO’s regular supervisory system
responsible for ensuring that ratified conventions are
applied.

11. Let’s look at two special categories of ILS
• Fundamental (Core Conventions)
• Priority Conventions

12. • Eight ILO conventions (covering four labour standards –
known as the Fundamental (or Core) Labour Standards) -
are designated as “Fundamental”.
• They are legally binding upon members by virtue of
membership in the ILO, regardless of ratification.
• They came into being through the 1998 “ILO Declaration
on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work”

13. These 8 conventions (4 standards) are:
• freedom of association (Conv. No. 87) and the effective
recognition of the right to collective bargaining (Conv.
No. 98)
• the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory
labour (Conv No. 29 and 105)
• the effective abolition of child labour (Conv. No 138,
182)
• The elimination of discrimination in respect of
employment and occupation (Conv. No. 100, 111)

14. • There are currently over 1,290 ratifications of these
conventions,
• This represents 88.5% of the possible number of
ratifications.

15. • Four ILO Conventions (covering 3 standards) are
designated as “priority” instruments because of
their importance to the functioning of the
international labour standards system.
• They cover:
• Labour Inspection (No. 81 and No 129 for Agriculture)
• Tripartite Consultation – Government, Employers
organizations and Workers’ organizations (No. 144)
• Employment Policy (No. 122)

16. • Freedom of Association, • Wages
Collective Bargaining, and • Working Time
Industrial Relations
• Occupational Safety and
• Elimination Forced Labour Health
• Abolition of Child Labour and • Social Security
Protection of Children and
Young Persons • Maternity Protection
• Equality of Opportunity and • Social Policy
Treatment • Migrant Workers
• Tripartite Consultation • Seafarers
• Labour Administration and • Fishermen
Inspection • Dockworkers
• Employment Policy and • Indigenous and Tribal
Promotion Peoples
• Vocational Guidance and • Specific Categories of
Training Workers
• Employment Security

17. • It all starts from a growing international concern
on which action is needed to be taken,
Example: providing working women with maternity
protection, or ensuring safe working conditions for
agricultural workers, etc.
• ILS are developed through a unique tripartite
legislative process involving representatives of
governments, workers and employers from
around the world.

18. • Problem is identified;  placed on the agenda of a future
International Labour Conference (ILC);  a report on the
problem is prepared and circulated  problem is
discussed at the International Labour Conference. 
comments taken  second report prepared for the
following Conference  necessary amendments made
 adoption by a two-thirds majority of votes.
• This “double discussion” gives Conference participants
sufficient time to examine the draft instrument and make
comments on it.

20. • Standards are adopted by a two-thirds majority –
hence are expression of universally
acknowledged principles.
• standards are flexible enough to be translated
into national law and practice with due
consideration to members’ diversity (cultural and
institutional, legal, and economic).
• For example, standards on minimum wages do not set
a specific universal minimum wage; it requires each
country to establish a system and the machinery to fix
minimum wage rates appropriate to its level of
development.

21. • At present there are 188 conventions and 199
recommendations, some dating back as far as 1919.
• To maintain relevance of standards to today’s challenges,
the ILO adopts revising conventions that replace older
ones, or protocols which add new provisions to older
conventions.
• The International Labour Conference may also approve
the withdrawal of recommendations or conventions
which have not entered into force.

22. • Between 1995 and 2002 the Governing Body
reviewed all ILO standards adopted before 1985,
the decision:
• 71 conventions – including the fundamental and priority
conventions and those adopted after 1985 – were
designated as being “up-to-date” and recommended for
active promotion.
• Of the remaining standards, some needed to be
revised, some had an interim status, some were
outdated, and some others require further information
and study.
• In 1997 the ILO Constitution was amended to
allow abrogation of a convention in force if
recognized as obsolete by two-thirds vote of
delegates in International Labour Conference.

23. • for drafting and implementing labour law in
conformity with internationally accepted
standards.
• As sources of international law applied at the
national level (e.g. in courts to decide cases on
which national law is inadequate or silent)
• As guideline for social policy such as
employment policies; social security
administration systems and for systems of labour
dispute resolution
• In trade agreements to protect and/or promote
labour rights
• As guides or principles for socially-responsible
enterprise practices