Convention concerning Private Employment Agencies (Note: Date of coming into
force: 10:05:2000)
Convention:C181
Place:Geneva
Session of the Conference:85
Date of adoption:19:06:1997 See the ratifications for this Convention
The General Conference of the International Labour Organization,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International
Labour Office, and having met in its Eighty-fifth Session on 3 June 1997, and
Noting the provisions of the Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention
(Revised), 1949, and
Being aware of the importance of flexibility in the functioning of labour
markets, and
Recalling that the International Labour Conference at its 81st Session, 1994,
held the view that the ILO should proceed to revise the Fee-Charging Employment
Agencies Convention (Revised), 1949, and
Considering the very different environment in which private employment
agencies operate, when compared to the conditions prevailing when the
above-mentioned Convention was adopted, and
Recognizing the role which private employment agencies may play in a
well-functioning labour market, and
Recalling the need to protect workers against abuses, and
Recognizing the need to guarantee the right to freedom of association and to
promote collective bargaining and social dialogue as necessary components of a
well-functioning industrial relations system, and
Noting the provisions of the Employment Service Convention, 1948, and
Recalling the provisions of the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, the Freedom
of Association and the Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948, the
Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949, the Discrimination
(Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958, the Employment Policy Convention,
1964, the Minimum Age Convention, 1973, the Employment Promotion and Protection
against Unemployment Convention, 1988, and the provisions relating to
recruitment and placement in the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised),
1949, and the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to the
revision of the Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention (Revised), 1949,
which is the fourth item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an
international Convention;
adopts, this nineteenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and
ninety-seven, the following Convention, which may be cited as the Private
Employment Agencies Convention, 1997:
Article 1
For the purpose of this Convention the term private employment agency
means any natural or legal person, independent of the public authorities,
which provides one or more of the following labour market services:
services for matching offers of and applications for employment,
without the private employment agency becoming a party to the employment
relationships which may arise therefrom;
services consisting of employing workers with a view to making them
available to a third party, who may be a natural or legal person
(referred to below as a "user enterprise") which assigns their
tasks and supervises the execution of these tasks;
other services relating to jobseeking, determined by the competent
authority after consulting the most representative employers and workers
organizations, such as the provision of information, that do not set out
to match specific offers of and applications for employment.
For the purpose of this Convention, the term workers includes jobseekers.
For the purpose of this Convention, the term processing of personal data
of workers means the collection, storage, combination, communication or any
other use of information related to an identified or identifiable worker.
Article 2
This Convention applies to all private employment agencies.
This Convention applies to all categories of workers and all branches of
economic activity. It does not apply to the recruitment and placement of
seafarers.
One purpose of this Convention is to allow the operation of private
employment agencies as well as the protection of the workers using their
services, within the framework of its provisions.
After consulting the most representative organizations of employers and
workers concerned, a Member may:
prohibit, under specific circumstances, private employment agencies
from operating in respect of certain categories of workers or branches
of economic activity in the provision of one or more of the services
referred to in Article 1, paragraph 1;
exclude, under specific circumstances, workers in certain branches of
economic activity, or parts thereof, from the scope of the Convention or
from certain of its provisions, provided that adequate protection is
otherwise assured for the workers concerned.
A Member which ratifies this Convention shall specify, in its reports
under article 22 of the Constitution of the International Labour
Organization, any prohibition or exclusion of which it avails itself under
paragraph 4 above, and give the reasons therefor.
Article 3
The legal status of private employment agencies shall be determined in
accordance with national law and practice, and after consulting the most
representative organizations of employers and workers.
A Member shall determine the conditions governing the operation of private
employment agencies in accordance with a system of licensing or
certification, except where they are otherwise regulated or determined by
appropriate national law and practice.
Article 4
Measures shall be taken to ensure that the workers recruited by private
employment agencies providing the services referred to in Article 1 are not
denied the right to freedom of association and the right to bargain
collectively.
Article 5
In order to promote equality of opportunity and treatment in access to
employment and to particular occupations, a Member shall ensure that private
employment agencies treat workers without discrimination on the basis of
race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction, social
origin, or any other form of discrimination covered by national law and
practice, such as age or disability.
Paragraph 1 of this Article shall not be implemented in such a way as to
prevent private employment agencies from providing special services or
targeted programmes designed to assist the most disadvantaged workers in
their jobseeking activities.
Article 6
The processing of personal data of workers by private employment agencies
shall be:
done in a manner that protects this data and ensures respect for workers
privacy in accordance with national law and practice;
limited to matters related to the qualifications and professional
experience of the workers concerned and any other directly relevant
information.
Article 7
Private employment agencies shall not charge directly or indirectly, in
whole or in part, any fees or costs to workers.
In the interest of the workers concerned, and after consulting the most
representative organizations of employers and workers, the competent
authority may authorize exceptions to the provisions of paragraph 1 above in
respect of certain categories of workers, as well as specified types of
services provided by private employment agencies.
A Member which has authorized exceptions under paragraph 2 above shall, in
its reports under article 22 of the Constitution of the International Labour
Organization, provide information on such exceptions and give the reasons
therefor.
Article 8
A Member shall, after consulting the most representative organizations of
employers and workers, adopt all necessary and appropriate measures, both
within its jurisdiction and, where appropriate, in collaboration with other
Members, to provide adequate protection for and prevent abuses of migrant
workers recruited or placed in its territory by private employment agencies.
These shall include laws or regulations which provide for penalties,
including prohibition of those private employment agencies which engage in
fraudulent practices and abuses.
Where workers are recruited in one country for work in another, the
Members concerned shall consider concluding bilateral agreements to prevent
abuses and fraudulent practices in recruitment, placement and employment.
Article 9
A Member shall take measures to ensure that child labour is not used or
supplied by private employment agencies.
Article 10
The competent authority shall ensure that adequate machinery and procedures,
involving as appropriate the most representative employers and workers
organizations, exist for the investigation of complaints, alleged abuses and
fraudulent practices concerning the activities of private employment agencies.
Article 11
A Member shall, in accordance with national law and practice, take the
necessary measures to ensure adequate protection for the workers employed by
private employment agencies as described in Article 1, paragraph 1(b) above, in
relation to:
freedom of association;
collective bargaining;
minimum wages;
working time and other working conditions;
statutory social security benefits;
access to training;
occupational safety and health;
compensation in case of occupational accidents or diseases;
compensation in case of insolvency and protection of workers claims;
maternity protection and benefits, and parental protection and benefits.
Article 12
A Member shall determine and allocate, in accordance with national law and
practice, the respective responsibilities of private employment agencies
providing the services referred to in paragraph 1(b) of Article 1 and of user
enterprises in relation to:
collective bargaining;
minimum wages;
working time and other working conditions;
statutory social security benefits;
access to training;
protection in the field of occupational safety and health;
compensation in case of occupational accidents or diseases;
compensation in case of insolvency and protection of workers claims;
maternity protection and benefits, and parental protection and benefits.
Article 13
A Member shall, in accordance with national law and practice and after
consulting the most representative organizations of employers and workers,
formulate, establish and periodically review conditions to promote
cooperation between the public employment service and private employment
agencies.
The conditions referred to in paragraph 1 above shall be based on the
principle that the public authorities retain final authority for:
formulating labour market policy;
utilizing or controlling the use of public funds earmarked for the
implementation of that policy.
Private employment agencies shall, at intervals to be determined by the
competent authority, provide to that authority the information required by
it, with due regard to the confidential nature of such information:
to allow the competent authority to be aware of the structure and
activities of private employment agencies in accordance with national
conditions and practices;
for statistical purposes.
The competent authority shall compile and, at regular intervals, make this
information publicly available.
Article 14
The provisions of this Convention shall be applied by means of laws or
regulations or by any other means consistent with national practice, such as
court decisions, arbitration awards or collective agreements.
Supervision of the implementation of provisions to give effect to this
Convention shall be ensured by the labour inspection service or other
competent public authorities.
Adequate remedies, including penalties where appropriate, shall be
provided for and effectively applied in case of violations of this
Convention.
Article 15
This Convention does not affect more favourable provisions applicable under
other international labour Conventions to workers recruited, placed or employed
by private employment agencies.
Article 16
This Convention revises the Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention
(Revised), 1949, and the Fee-Charging Employment Agencies Convention, 1933.
Article 17
The formal ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to the
Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration.
Article 18
This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the
International Labour Organization whose ratifications have been registered
with the Director-General of the International Labour Office.
It shall come into force 12 months after the date on which the
ratifications of two Members have been registered with the Director-General.
Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member 12 months
after the date on which its ratification has been registered.
Article 19
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.
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 20
The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall notify all
Members of the International Labour Organization of the registration of all
ratifications and acts of denunciation communicated by the Members of the
Organization.
When notifying the Members of the Organization of the registration of the
second ratification, the Director-General shall draw the attention of the
Members of the Organization to the date upon which the Convention shall come
into force.
Article 21
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 the Director-General in
accordance with the provisions of the preceding Articles.
Article 22
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 23
Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention in
whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise provides -
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 19 above, if and when the new
revising Convention shall have come into force;
as from the date when the new revising Convention comes into force,
this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification by the Members.
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 24
The English and French versions of the text of this Convention are equally
authoritative.
