Recommendation concerning Labour Administration: Role,
Functions and Organisation
Recommendation:R158
Place: Geneva
Session of the Conference:64
Date of adoption=26:06:1978
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 Sixty-fourth Session on 7
June 1978, and
Recalling the terms of existing international labour
Conventions and Recommendations, including in particular the Labour Inspection
Convention, 1947, the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969, and the
Employment Service Convention, 1948, which call for the exercise of particular
labour administration activities, and
Considering it desirable to adopt instruments establishing
guidelines regarding the over-all system of labour administration, and
Recalling the terms of the Employment Policy Convention,
1964, and of the Human Resources Development Convention, 1975; recalling also
the goal of the creation of full and adequately remunerated employment and
affirming the need for programmes of labour administration to work towards this
goal and to give effect to the objectives of the said Conventions, and
Recognising the necessity of fully respecting the autonomy
of employers' and workers' organisations, recalling in this connection the terms
of existing international labour Conventions and Recommendations guaranteeing
rights of association, organisation and collective bargaining:and particularly
the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention,
1948, and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949:which forbid any interference by public authorities which would restrict
these rights or impede the lawful exercise thereof, and considering that
employers' and workers' organisations have essential roles in attaining the
objectives of economic, social and cultural progress, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with
regard to labour administration: role, functions and organisation, which is the
fourth item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form
of a Recommendation supplementing the Labour Administration Convention, 1978,
adopts this twenty-sixth day of June of the year one
thousand nine hundred and seventy-eight, the following Recommendation, which may
be cited as the Labour Administration Recommendation, 1978:
the term labour administration means public
administration activities in the field of national labour policy;
the term system of labour administration covers
all public administration bodies responsible for and/or engaged in labour
administration:whether they are ministerial departments or public agencies,
including parastatal and regional or local agencies or any other form of
decentralised administration:and any institutional framework for the
co-ordination of the activities of such bodies and for consultation with and
participation by employers and workers and their organisations.
A Member may, in accordance with national laws or
regulations, or national practice, delegate or entrust certain activities of
labour administration to non-governmental organisations, particularly employers'
and workers' organisations, or:where appropriate: to employers' and workers'
representatives.
A Member may regard particular activities in the field of
its national labour policy as being matters which in accordance with national
laws or regulations, or national practice, are regulated by having recourse to
direct negotiations between employers' and workers' organisations.
Each Member should, in a manner appropriate to national
conditions, ensure the organisation and effective operation in its territory of
a system of labour administration, the functions and responsibilities of which
are properly co-ordinated.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should: in consultation with organisations of employers and
workers and in a manner and under conditions determined by national laws or
regulations, or national practice: take an active part in the preparation,
development, adoption, application and review of labour standards, including
relevant laws and regulations.
They should make their services available to employers'
and workers' organisations, as may be appropriate under national laws or
regulations, or national practice, with a view to promoting the regulation of
terms and conditions of employment by means of collective bargaining.
The system of labour administration should include a
system of labour inspection.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should participate in the determination and application of such
measures as may be necessary to ensure the free exercise of employers' and
workers' right of association.
There should be labour administration programmes aimed
at the promotion, establishment and pursuit of labour relations which encourage
progressively better conditions of work and working life and which respect the
right to organise and bargain collectively.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should assist in the improvement of labour relations by providing
or strengthening advisory services to undertakings, employers' organisations and
workers' organisations requesting such services, in accordance with programmes
established on the basis of consultation with such organisations.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should promote the full development and utilisation of machinery
for voluntary negotiation.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should be in a position to provide, in agreement with the
employers' and workers' organisations concerned, conciliation and mediation
facilities, appropriate to national conditions, in case of collective disputes.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should be responsible for or participate in the preparation,
administration, co-ordination, checking and review of national employment
policy.
A central body of the system of labour administration,
to be determined in accordance with national laws or regulations, or national
practice, should be closely associated with, or responsible for taking,
appropriate institutional measures to co-ordinate the activities of the various
authorities and bodies which are concerned with particular aspects of employment
policy.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should co-ordinate, or participate in the co-ordination of,
employment services, employment promotion and creation programmes, vocational
guidance and vocational training programmes and unemployment benefit schemes,
and they should co-ordinate, or participate in the co-ordination of, these
various services, programmes and schemes with the implementation of general
employment policy measures.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should be responsible for establishing, or promoting the
establishment of, methods and procedures for ensuring consultation of employers'
and workers' organisations, or:where appropriate, employers' and workers'
representatives, on employment policies, and promotion of their co-operation in
the implementation of such policies.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should be responsible for manpower planning or where this is not
possible should participate in the functioning of manpower planning bodies
through both institutional representation and the provision of technical
information and advice.
They should participate in the co-ordination and
integration of manpower plans with economic plans.
They should promote joint action of employers and
workers, with the assistance as appropriate of public authorities and bodies,
regarding both short-and long-term employment policies.
The system of labour administration should include a
free public employment service and operate such a service effectively.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should, wherever national laws and regulations, or national
practice, so permit, have or share responsibility for the management of public
funds made available for such purposes as countering underemployment and
unemployment, regulating the regional distribution of employment, or promoting
and assisting the employment of particular categories of workers, including
sheltered employment schemes.
The competent bodies within the system of labour
administration should, in a manner and under conditions determined by national
laws or regulations, or national practice, participate in the development of
comprehensive and concerted policies and programmes of human resources
development including vocational guidance and vocational training.
For the fulfilment of its social objectives, the system
of labour administration should carry out research as one of its important
functions and encourage research by others.
The ministry of labour or another comparable body
determined by national laws or regulations, or national practice, should take or
initiate measures ensuring appropriate representation of the system of labour
administration in the administrative and consultative bodies in which
information is collected, opinions are considered, decisions are prepared and
taken and measures of implementation are devised with respect to social and
economic policies.
Each of the principal labour administration services
competent with respect to the matters referred to in Paragraphs 5 to 18 above
should provide periodic information or reports on its activities to the ministry
of labour or the other comparable body referred to in Paragraph 19, as well as
to employers' and workers' organisations.
Such information or reports should be of a technical
nature, include appropriate statistics, and indicate the problems encountered
and if possible the results achieved in such a manner as to permit an evaluation
of present trends and foreseeable future developments in areas of major concern
to the system of labour administration.
The system of labour administration should evaluate,
publish and disseminate such information of general interest on labour matters
as it is able to derive from its operation.
Members, in consultation with the International Labour
Office, should seek to promote the establishment of suitable models for the
publication of such information, with a view to improving its international
comparability.
The structures of the national system of labour
administration should be kept constantly under review, in consultation with the
most representative organisations of employers and workers.
Appropriate arrangements should be made to provide the
system of labour administration with the necessary financial resources and an
adequate number of suitably qualified staff to promote its effectiveness.
In this connection, due account should be taken of:
the importance of the duties to be performed;
the material means placed at the disposal of the staff;
the practical conditions under which the various
functions must be carried out in order to be effective.
The staff of the labour administration system should
receive initial and further training at levels suitable for their work; there
should be permanent arrangements to ensure that such training is available to
them throughout their careers.
Staff in particular services should have the special
qualifications required for such services, ascertained in a manner determined by
the appropriate body.
Consideration should be given to supplementing national
programmes and facilities for the training envisaged in Paragraph 23 above by
international co-operation in the form of exchanges of experience and
information and of common initial and further training programmes and
facilities, particularly at the regional level.
The system of labour administration should normally
comprise specialised units to deal with each of the major programmes of labour
administration the management of which is entrusted to it by national laws or
regulations.
For example, there might be units for such matters as
the formulation of standards relating to working conditions and terms of
employment; labour inspection; labour relations; employment, manpower planning
and human resources development; international labour affairs; and, as
appropriate, social security, minimum wage legislation and questions relating to
specific categories of workers.
There should be appropriate arrangements for the
effective organisation and operation of the field services of the system of
labour administration.
In particular, these arrangements should:
ensure that the placing of field services corresponds to
the needs of the various areas, the representative organisations of employers
and workers concerned being consulted thereon;
provide field services with adequate staff, equipment
and transport facilities for the effective performance of their duties;
ensure that field services have sufficient and clear
instructions to preclude the possibility of laws and regulations being
differently interpreted in different areas.
