R83 Employment Service Recommendation, 1948

1. General Organisation
2. Employment Market Information
3. Manpower Budget
4. Referral of Workers
5. Mobility of Labour
6. Miscellaneous Provisions
7. International Co-operation among Employment Services

The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,

Having been convened at San Francisco by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Thirty-first Session on 17 June 1948, and

Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to the organisation of the employment service, which is included in the fourth item on the agenda of the session, and

Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation supplementing the Employment Service Recommendation, 1944, and the Employment Service Convention, 1948,

adopts this ninth day of July of the year one thousand nine hundred and forty-eight, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Employment Service Recommendation, 1948:

Whereas the Employment Service Recommendation, 1944, and the Employment Service Convention, 1948, provide for the organisation of employment services and it is desirable to supplement the provisions thereof by further recommendations;

The Conference recommends that each Member should apply the following provisions as rapidly as national conditions allow and report to the International Labour Office as requested by the Governing Body concerning the measures taken to give effect thereto.

I. General Organisation

1. The free public employment service should comprise a central headquarters, local offices and, where necessary, regional offices.
2. In order to promote development of the employment service, and to secure unified and co-ordinated national administration, provision should be made for:
   1. the issue by the headquarters of national administrative instructions;
   2. the formulation of minimum national standards concerning the staffing and material arrangements of the employment offices;
   3. adequate financing of the service by the government;
   4. periodical reports from lower to higher administrative levels;
   5. national inspection of regional and local offices; and
   6. periodical conferences among central, regional and local officers, including inspection staff.
3. Appropriate arrangements should be made by the employment service for such co-operation as may be necessary with management, workers' representatives, and bodies set up with a view to studying the special employment problems of particular areas, undertakings, industries, or groups of industries.
4. Measures should be taken in appropriate cases to develop, within the general framework of the employment services:
   1. separate employment offices specialising in meeting the needs of employers and workers belonging to particular industries or occupations such as port transport, merchant marine, building and civil engineering, agriculture and forestry and domestic service, wherever the character or importance of the industry or occupation or other special factors justify the maintenance of such separate offices;
   2. special arrangements for the placement of:
      1. juveniles;
      2. disabled persons; and
      3. technicians, professional workers, salaried employees and executive staff;
   3. adequate arrangements for the placement of women on the basis of their occupational skill and physical capacity.

II. Employment Market Information

5. The employment service should collect employment market information, including material pertaining to:
   1. current and prospective labour requirements (including the number and type of workers needed, classified on an industrial, occupational or area basis);
   2. current and prospective labour supply (including details of the number, age and sex, skills, occupations, industries and areas of residence of the workers and of the number, location and characteristics of applicants for employment).
6. The employment service should make continuous or special studies on such questions as:
   1. the causes and incidence of unemployment, including technological unemployment;
   2. the placement of particular groups of applicants for employment such as the disabled or juveniles;
   3. factors affecting the level and character of employment;
   4. the regularisation of employment;
   5. vocational guidance in relation to placement;
   6. occupation and job analysis; and
   7. other aspects of the organisation of the employment market.
7. This information should be collected by suitably trained and qualified staff, in co-operation where necessary with other official bodies and with employers' and workers' organisations.
8. The methods used for the collection and analysis of the information should include, as may be found practicable and appropriate:
   1. direct enquiries from the bodies with special knowledge of the subjects in question, such as other public bodies, employers' and workers' organisations, public and private undertakings, and joint committees;
   2. co-operation with labour inspection and unemployment insurance and assistance services;
   3. periodical reports on questions having a special bearing on the employment market; and
   4. investigations of particular questions, research projects and analyses carried out by the employment service.

III. Manpower Budget

9. In order to facilitate the best possible organisation of the employment market as an integral part of the national programme for the achievement and maintenance of full employment and the development and use of productive resources, an annual national manpower budget should be drawn up, as soon as practicable, as part of a general economic survey.
10. The manpower budget should be drawn up by the employment service in co-operation with other public authorities where appropriate.
11. The manpower budget should include detailed material concerning the anticipated volume and distribution of the labour supply and demand.

IV. Referral of Workers

12. The employment service should:
    1. observe strict neutrality in the case of employment available in an establishment where there is a labour dispute affecting such employment;
    2. not refer workers to employment in respect of which the wages or conditions of work fall below the standard defined by law or prevailing practice;
    3. not, in referring workers to employment, itself discriminate against applicants on grounds of race, colour, sex or belief.
13. The employment service should be responsible for providing applicants for employment with all relevant information about the jobs to which such applicants are referred, including information on the matters dealt with in the preceding paragraph.

V. Mobility of Labour

14. For the purpose of facilitating the mobility of labour necessary to achieve and maintain maximum production and employment, the employment service should take the measures indicated in paragraphs 15 to 20 below.
15. The fullest and most reliable information concerning employment opportunities and working conditions in other occupations and areas and concerning living conditions (including the availability of suitable housing accommodation) in such areas should be collected and disseminated.
16. Workers should be furnished with appropriate information and advice designed to eliminate objections to changing their occupation or residence.
17. 1. The employment service should remove economic obstacles to geographical transfers which it considers necessary by such means as financial assistance.
    2. Such assistance should be granted, in cases authorised by the service, in respect of transfers made through or approved by the service, particularly where no other arrangements exist for the payment other than by the worker of the extra expense involved in the transfers.
    3. The amount of the assistance should be determined according to national and individual circumstances.
18. The employment service should assist the unemployment insurance and assistance authorities in defining and interpreting the conditions in which available employment which is in an occupation other than the usual occupation of an unemployed person or which requires him to change his residence should be regarded as suitable for him.
19. The employment service should assist the competent authorities in establishing and developing the programmes of training or retraining courses (including apprenticeship, supplementary training and upgrading courses), selecting persons for such courses and placing in employment persons who have completed them.

VI. Miscellaneous Provisions

20. 1. The employment service should co-operate with other public and private bodies concerned with employment problems.
    2. For this purpose the service should be consulted and its views taken into account by any co-ordinating machinery concerned with the formation and application of policy relating to such questions as:
       1. the distribution of industry;
       2. public works and public investment;
       3. technological progress in relation to production and employment;
       4. migration;
       5. housing;
       6. the provision of social amenities such as health care, schools and recreational facilities; and
       7. general community organisation and planning affecting the availability of employment.
21. In order to promote use of employment service facilities and enable the service to perform its tasks efficiently, the service should take the measures indicated in paragraphs 22 to 25 below.
22. 1. Continuous efforts should be made to encourage full voluntary use of employment service information and facilities by persons seeking employment or workers.
    2. These efforts should include the use of films, radio and all other methods of public information and relations with a view to making better known and appreciated, particularly among employers and workers and their organisations, the basic work of the service in employment organisation and the advantages accruing to the workers, employers and the nation from the fullest use of the employment service.
23. Workers applying for unemployment benefit or allowances, and so far as possible persons completing courses of vocational training under public or government-subsidised training programmes, should be required to register for employment with the employment service.
24. Special efforts should be made to encourage juveniles, and so far as possible all persons entering employment for the first time, to register for employment and to attend for an employment interview.
25. Employers, including the management of public or semi-public undertakings, should be encouraged to notify the service of vacancies for employment.
26. Systematic efforts should be made to develop the efficiency of the employment service in such manner as to obviate the need for private employment agencies in all occupations except those in which the competent authority considers that for special reasons the existence of private agencies is desirable or essential.

VII. International Co-operation among Employment Services

27. 1. International co-operation among employment services should include, as may be appropriate and practicable, and with the help where desired of the International Labour Office:
       1. the systematic exchange of information and experience on employment service policy and methods, either on a bilateral, regional or multilateral basis; and
       2. the organisation of bilateral, regional or multilateral technical conferences on employment service questions.
    2. To facilitate any movements of workers approved in accordance with Article 6 (b) (iv) of the Convention, the employment service, on the request of the national authority directing it and in co-operation where desired with the International Labour Office, should:
       1. collect in co-operation, as appropriate, with other bodies and organisations, information relating to the applications for work and the vacancies which cannot be filled nationally, in order to promote the immigration or emigration of workers able to satisfy as far as possible such applications and vacancies;
       2. co-operate with other competent authorities, national or foreign, in preparing and applying inter-governmental bilateral, regional or multilateral agreements relating to migration.

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