R71 Employment (Transition from War to Peace) Recommendation, 1944

The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,

Having been convened at Philadelphia by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Twenty-sixth Session on 20 April 1944, and

Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to the organisation of employment in the transition from war to peace, which is the third item on the agenda of the Session, and

Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation,

adopts this twelfth day of May of the year one thousand nine hundred and forty-four, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Employment (Transition from War to Peace) Recommendation, 1944:

Whereas the promotion of full employment with a view to satisfying the vital needs of the population and raising the standard of living throughout the world is a primary objective of the International Labour Organisation;

Whereas in order to achieve full employment economic measures providing employment opportunities must be supplemented by effective organisation to help employers to secure the most suitable workers, to help workers to find the most suitable employment, and generally to ensure that, at any given moment, the necessary skills are available and are distributed satisfactorily among the various branches of production and the various areas; and

Whereas the character and magnitude of the employment adjustments required during the transition from war to peace will necessitate special action, more particularly for the purpose of facilitating the re-employment of demobilised members of the armed forces, discharged war workers, and all persons whose usual employment has been interrupted as a result of the war, enemy action, or resistance to the enemy or enemy-dominated authorities, by assisting the persons concerned to find without delay the most suitable employment;

The Conference recommends the Members of the Organisation to apply the following general principles, and in so doing to take into account, according to national conditions, the suggested methods of application, and to communicate information to the International Labour Office, as requested by the Governing Body, concerning the measures taken to give effect to these principles:

General Principles

I. Each Government should collect whatever information is necessary regarding workers seeking or likely to be seeking employment and regarding prospective employment opportunities, with a view to ensuring the most rapid reabsorption or redistribution in suitable employment of all persons who desire to work.

II. The demobilisation of the armed forces and of assimilated services and the repatriation of prisoners of war, persons who have been deported, and others, should be planned with the objective of maximum fairness to individuals and maximum opportunities for satisfactory re-establishment in civil life.

III. National programmes for industrial demobilisation and reconversion should be planned, in co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations, and other adequate measures taken, in such manner as to facilitate the most rapid attainment of full employment for the production of needed goods and services.

IV. In the organisation of full employment in the transition period and thereafter, the widest possible use of employment service facilities by employers seeking workers and by workers seeking employment should be encouraged by the competent authorities and by employers' and workers' organisations.

V. Each Government should, to the maximum extent possible, provide public vocational guidance facilities, available to persons seeking work, with a view to assisting them to find the most suitable employment.

VI. Training and retraining programmes should be developed to the fullest possible extent in order to meet the needs of the workers who will have to be re-established in employment or provided with new employment.

VII. With a view to avoiding the need for excessive movements of workers from one area to another and preventing localised unemployment in particular areas, each Government should, in co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations, formulate a positive policy in regard to the location of industry and the diversification of economic activity. Governments should also take steps to facilitate any necessary mobility of labour, both occupational and geographical.

VIII. Efforts should be made during the transition period to provide the widest possible opportunities for acquiring skill for juveniles and young workers who were unable, because of the war, to undertake or to complete their training, and efforts should also be made to improve the education and health supervision of young persons.

IX. The redistribution of women workers in each national economy should be carried out on the principle of complete equality of opportunity for men and women in respect of admission to employment on the basis of their individual merit, skill and experience, and steps should be taken to encourage the establishment of wage rates on the basis of job content, without regard to sex.

X. Disabled workers, whatever the origin of their disability, should be provided with full opportunities for rehabilitation, specialised vocational guidance, training and retraining, and employment on useful work.

XI. Measures should be taken to regularise employment within the industries and occupations in which work is irregular, in order to achieve full use of the capacities of the workers.

Methods of Application

I. Advance Collection of Information

1. Each Government should arrange for the co-ordinated collection and utilisation of as complete and up-to-date information as possible on--

(a) the number, educational and occupational backgrounds, past and present skills, and occupational wishes of members of the armed forces and of assimilated services, and as far as possible of all persons whose usual employment has been interrupted as the result of enemy action or resistance to the enemy or enemy-dominated authorities;

(b) the number, location, industrial distribution, sex distribution, skills and occupational wishes of workers who will have to change their employment during the transition from war to peace; and

(c) the number and distribution of older workers, women and juveniles who are likely to withdraw from gainful employment after the war emergency and the number of juveniles who are likely to be seeking employment on leaving school.

2.

(1) Comprehensive material on prospective labour requirements, showing the probable extent and timing of the demand for workers from each major industry, both in total and by major skills, should be collected and analysed before the end of the war.

(2) Where such information is in the possession of any administrative authority, it should be made available to the authorities primarily responsible for the collection or utilisation of advance information on labour supply and requirements.

(3) The material on labour requirements should cover more particularly--

(a) the probable contraction of labour requirements resulting from the closing of certain munitions undertakings;

(b) the probable rate of contraction of the armed forces and of assimilated services upon the termination of hostilities;

(c) probable fluctuations and changes by areas in the labour force of industries or undertakings which will, with or without a period of conversion, continue in operation to meet peacetime needs;

(d) probable labour requirements in industries which will be expanding to meet peacetime needs, in particular in industries the output of which is most urgently needed to improve the standard of living of the workers, and in public works, including works of a normal character and works held in reserve for the provision of supplementary employment in periods of declining economic activity; and

(e) the probable demand for workers in the main industries and occupations under conditions of full employment.

3. Prospective labour supply and demand in the various areas should be kept under constant review by the appropriate authorities, in order to show the effect of the war and the probable effect of the termination of hostilities on the employment situation in each of these areas.

4. Members should co-operate in collecting the information referred to in subparagraphs (a), (b) and (c) of Paragraph 1 in respect of persons transferred out of their own countries as a result of Axis aggression. Each Government should supply such information in respect of nationals of other Members living in its territory, in Axis territories, or in territory occupied by the Axis, who are awaiting repatriation, even where the information available is merely of a general character.

II. Demobilisation of the Armed Forces

5. Close contact should be organised and maintained between the employment service and the authorities responsible for the demobilisation of the armed forces and assimilated services and for the repatriation of prisoners of war and persons who have been deported, in order to ensure the speediest re-employment of the men and women concerned.

6.

(1) The rate and order of demobilisation should be controlled according to clearly expressed principles which should be given wide publicity in order that they may be clearly understood.

(2) In the process of demobilisation, which should in general be as rapid as military necessity and transportation facilities permit, consideration should be given to--

(a) the desirability of regulating the rate and distributing the flow of demobilisation so as to avoid local concentrations of ex-service men and women disproportionate to the capacity of their community to provide opportunity for employment or training; and

(b) the desirability of arranging, where necessary, for an early release of workers whose qualifications make them indispensable for urgent reconstruction work.

7.

(1) Schemes for reinstating in their former employment persons whose usual employment has been interrupted by military mobilisation, enemy action, or resistance to the enemy or enemy-dominated authorities, should be adopted and carried out so far as changed post-war circumstances allow.

(2) The fullest possible employment and advancement opportunities for these men and women, on the basis of their qualifications, should be assured through Government action and collective agreements.

(3) Immediate alternative employment should be secured for the workers displaced by the operation of these schemes.

8. In addition to schemes for re-employment, immediate consideration should be given to the provision, wherever justified by prospective opportunities to make a living, of adequate financial and other assistance to enable qualified demobilised persons to settle or resettle on the land, to enter or re-enter a profession, or to take up other independent work.

III. Industrial Demobilisation and Conversion

9.

(1) Each Government should, in co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations, formulate a national industrial demobilisation and reconversion programme to facilitate the rapid and orderly conversion of the economy from wartime to peacetime requirements during the period of reconstruction, account being taken of the urgent need of countries devastated by the war, with a view to attaining full employment with the least possible delay. All information in regard to the demobilisation and reconversion programme should be made available to the authorities responsible for collecting advance information on labour supply and requirements.

(2) The co-operation of employers' and workers' organisations should be invited with a view to working out comprehensive industry and area demobilisation and reconversion programmes to facilitate the change-over from war to peace production in a manner that will minimise transitional unemployment.

10.

(1) Each Government should, so far as possible before the end of the war, determine its policy in regard to the peacetime use of Government-owned war production capacity and equipment and in regard to the disposition of surplus materials.

(2) Special consideration should be given to the early release of factories and equipment urgently needed for peacetime production or training.

(3) In general, factories, equipment or materials should not be destroyed or kept out of use where human needs are unsatisfied or where no excess production would exist at reasonable prices under conditions of demand associated with full employment.

11. Each Government should, in formulating its policy and procedure for the termination or adjustment of war contracts, give special consideration to the possibilities of continued employment or rapid re-employment of the workers affected or of favourable opportunities for employment in other areas. Governments should also arrange for the prompt settlement of claims under terminated contracts, so that employment will not be held back by needless financial difficulties of contractors. Contractors in countries at present occupied who have worked voluntarily in the interest of the enemy should not be granted the benefit of such arrangements.

12.

(1) Arrangements should be made to ensure that administrative authorities give information at the earliest possible moment to the employment service and contractors regarding any circumstances likely to cause dismissals or lay-offs.

(2) Procurement agencies should give contractors both at home and abroad and the employment service as long advance notice as possible of cut-backs in war orders. In no case should the notice given be less than two weeks.

(3) Employers should give the employment service at least two weeks' advance notice of proposed dismissals affecting more than a specified number of workers, in order to enable the employment service to make plans for alternative employment for the workers concerned.

(4) Employers should give the employment service at least two weeks' advance notice of proposed temporary lay-offs affecting more than a specified number of workers, together with information to show the probable duration of such lay-offs, in order to enable the employment service to find temporary public or private employment or training for the laid-off workers. Employers should so far as possible inform the laid-off workers of the expected duration of such lay-offs.

IV. Applications for Work and for Workers

13.

(1) Vacancies on public works and in undertakings working on public orders to the extent of 75 per cent. or more of their operations should be filled through the employment service.

(2) Consideration should be given to the advisability of requiring employers in specified industries or areas to engage their workers through the employment service in order to facilitate the readjustment of employment.

(3) Employers should be encouraged to give advance notice of their labour requirements to the employment service.

14. Persons applying for employment on Government-sponsored projects, as well as persons applying for publicly supported training programmes or transfer assistance, or claiming unemployment benefit or allowance, should be required to register with the employment service.

15. Special efforts should be made to assist demobilised members of the forces and war workers to find the most suitable work of which they are capable, making use wherever possible of the skills acquired by them during the war.

16. Every effort should be made by the authorities, and in particular by the employment service, in co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations, to encourage as wide a use as possible of the employment service by employers and workers.

V. Vocational Guidance

17. Special and immediate attention should be given to the development of suitable methods and techniques of vocational guidance for adult workers.

18. In cases of prolonged unemployment, the use of vocational guidance facilities should be made a condition for the continued receipt of unemployment benefit or allowance.

19. The competent authorities should, in co-operation with the private bodies concerned, develop and maintain adequate training facilities for vocational guidance officers.

VI. Training and Retraining Programmes

20. On the basis of information concerning labour supply and demand in the post-war period, each Government should, in close co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations, formulate a national training and retraining programme, geared to the post-war needs of the economy and taking into account changes in the different skill requirements of each industry.

21. Every possible step should be taken to facilitate the occupational mobility necessary to adjust the supply of workers to present and prospective labour requirements.

22. Training and retraining programmes should be extended and adapted to meet the needs of demobilised persons, discharged war workers, and all persons whose usual employment has been interrupted as the result of enemy action or resistance to the enemy or enemy-dominated authorities. Special emphasis should be placed on courses of training designed to fit the persons concerned for employment which offers a permanent career.

23. In addition to apprenticeship schemes, systematic methods of training, retraining and upgrading workers should be developed to meet post-war needs for the reconstitution and expansion of the skilled labour force.

24. Persons undertaking training should be paid, where necessary, remuneration or allowances which provide an inducement to undergo and continue training and are sufficient to maintain a reasonable standard of life.

25. Men and women whose higher training and education have been prevented or interrupted by war service, whether in a military or civilian capacity, or by enemy action, or by resistance to the enemy or enemy-dominated authorities, should be enabled to enter upon or resume and complete their training and education, subject to continued proof of merit and promise, and should be paid allowances during their training and education.

26.

(1) Qualified vocational teachers and instructors who have been engaged in other work during the war should be encouraged to resume their previous occupation at the earliest possible moment.

(2) Refresher courses should be organised in case of need--

(a) for vocational instructors returning to their work after a lengthy absence; and

(b) for teaching new methods and techniques.

(3) Additional vocational teachers and instructors should be trained in the numbers required to meet the needs of the training and retraining programme.

(4) Members should co-operate, where necessary, in reconstituting and expanding vocational training and retraining by such methods as--

(a) the provision in one country of training as instructors for persons from another country to enable them to acquire broader skill or training not available in their own country;

(b) the loan of experienced vocational instructors and teachers from one country to help meet shortages of vocational training staff or new industrial needs in another country;

(c) facilitating the return to the territories of member countries of subjects thereof living in the territory of another member country who are qualified for teaching and instructing in their home country; and

(d) the provision of training handbooks and other equipment to assist instructors and persons in training.

27. Training and retraining services should be co-ordinated on a national, regional and local basis, and should be closely associated at all levels of operation with guidance work, with the placement work of the employment service, and with the training activities of employers' and workers' organisations.

VII. Geographical Mobility

28. With a view to facilitating the necessary mobility of labour, the employment service should take action to overcome the obstacles to transfers from one area to another and to assist the movement of workers to areas needing labour, thereby helping to bring together available skills and available employment opportunities and thus preventing unemployment.

29.

(1) Where a worker is transferred from one area to another on the initiative or with the consent of the employment service, arrangements should be made to grant travelling expenses and to assist the worker to meet initial expenses in the new place of work by granting or advancing him a specified amount, fixed according to the circumstances.

(2) Where a temporary transfer made through the employment service involves the separation of the head of the household from his family, arrangements should be made to grant an appropriate separation allowance to cover the added costs of maintaining double living quarters.

VIII. Employment of Young Workers

30.

(1) The policy of revising upward the school-leaving age and the age for admission to employment should be considered by all countries as a primary factor in planning employment policy for the transition period.

(2) Maintenance allowances should be granted to parents by the competent authorities during the additional period of compulsory education referred to above.

31. Student-aid programmes should be developed to enable young persons above the school-leaving age to continue their education in secondary schools or high schools, and for those beyond the secondary school level, subject to continued proof of merit, in technical or higher education schools or courses on a full-time basis.

32.

(1) Vocational guidance services adapted to their needs should be available for all young persons, both prior to and at the time of leaving school, through the school or the employment service.

(2) Free pre-employment medical examination should be provided for all young persons. The results of this examination should be incorporated in a certificate to serve as a basis for periodical re-examinations during a period to be prescribed by national laws or regulations.

(3) In countries in which war conditions and enemy occupation have undermined the health of young persons, particular attention should be given to the health supervision of such persons from the time of their admission to employment through the period of adjustment to working life, and, where necessary, measures of physical rehabilitation should be adopted.

(4) Members should co-operate, when requested, in providing for the training of medical and nursing staff, and the loan of experienced doctors, surgeons, nursing personnel and appropriate equipment, in order to facilitate the physical rehabilitation of the young persons referred to in subparagraph (3) above.

33.

(1) Young persons whose contracts of apprenticeship have been interrupted owing to the war should be entitled to resume apprenticeship on the termination of their war service.

(2) State aid should be made available to enable a person whose apprenticeship has been resumed in accordance with subparagraph (1) above to be assured of an income which is reasonable, having regard to his age and to the remuneration he would have been receiving had his apprenticeship not been interrupted.

(3) In all cases in which military service, raw material shortages, enemy action, or other war circumstances have prevented young persons from entering or continuing apprenticeship, arrangements should be made to encourage them, as soon as circumstances permit, to resume their apprenticeship or to learn a skilled trade.

(4) With a view to encouraging the resumption of interrupted apprenticeships, arrangements should be made to review the provisions of apprenticeship contracts and to vary them where this seems equitable to take account of training, skill or experience acquired during war service.

(5) Existing apprenticeship programmes should be re-examined, in co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations, with a view to giving wider opportunities to learn a skilled trade to the younger workers who have not been able, owing to the war, to enter apprenticeship. More particularly, consideration should be given to making arrangements for varying existing restrictions on admission to apprenticeship and for taking into account any training, skill or experience acquired during the war.

34. Employers should be encouraged to introduce programmes of systematic in-plant training to enable all the young workers employed in the undertaking to acquire training or to improve their skill and broaden their knowledge of the operations of the undertaking as a whole. Such programmes should be developed in co-operation with workers' organisations and should be adequately supervised.

35. In countries which have been invaded during the war, and in which there are young persons who have been compelled to abstain from work, or, without regard to their aptitudes or desires, to work for the enemy, special attention should be devoted to the readjustment of such young persons to work habits and to supplementing their vocational training.

IX. Employment of Women

36. The redistribution of women workers in the economy should be organised on the principle of complete equality of opportunity for men and women on the basis of their individual merit, skill and experience, without prejudice to the provisions of the international labour Conventions and Recommendations concerning the employment of women.

37.

(1) In order to place women on a basis of equality with men in the employment market, and thus to prevent competition among the available workers prejudicial to the interests of both men and women workers, steps should be taken to encourage the establishment of wage rates based on job content, without regard to sex.

(2) Investigations should be conducted, in co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations, for the purpose of establishing precise and objective standards for determining job content, irrespective of the sex of the worker, as a basis for determining wage rates.

38. The employment of women in industries and occupations in which large numbers of women have traditionally been employed should be facilitated by action to raise the relative status of these industries and occupations and to improve conditions of work and methods of placement therein.

X. Employment of Disabled Workers

39. The criterion for the training and employment of disabled workers should be the employability of the worker, whatever the origin of the disability.

40. There should be the closest collaboration between medical services for the disabled and vocational rehabilitation and placement services.

41. Specialised vocational guidance for the disabled should be developed in order to make it possible to assess each disabled worker's capacity and to select the most appropriate form of employment for him.

42.

(1) Wherever possible, disabled workers should receive training in company with able-bodied workers, under the same conditions and with the same pay.

(2) Training should be continued to the point where the disabled person is able to enter employment as an efficient worker in the trade or occupation for which he has been trained.

(3) Wherever practicable, efforts should be made to retrain disabled workers in their former occupations or in related occupations where their previous qualifications would be useful.

(4) Employers with suitable training facilities should be induced to train a reasonable proportion of disabled workers.

(5) Specialised training centres, with appropriate medical supervision, should be provided for those disabled persons who require such special training.

43.

(1) Special measures should be taken to ensure equality of employment opportunity for disabled workers on the basis of their working capacity. Employers should be induced by wide publicity and other means, and where necessary compelled, to employ a reasonable quota of disabled workers.

(2) In certain occupations particularly suitable for the employment of seriously disabled workers, such workers should be given preference over all other workers.

(3) Efforts should be made, in close co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations, to overcome employment discriminations against disabled workers which are not related to their ability and job performance, and to overcome the obstacles to their employment, including the possibility of increased liability in respect of workmen's compensation.

(4) Employment on useful work in special centres under non-competitive conditions should be made available for all disabled workers who cannot be made fit for normal employment.

44. Information should be assembled by the employment service in regard to the occupations particularly suited to different disabilities and the size, location and employability of the disabled population.

XI. Regularisation of Employment in Particular Industries

45. In industries in which operations are irregular, such as construction and port transport, the schemes for the regularisation of employment adopted or extended during the war by Member States should be maintained and adapted to peacetime conditions in consultation with the employers' and workers' organisations concerned.

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