Policies and programmes of vocational guidance and
vocational training shall be formulated and implemented in co-operation with
employers' and workers' organisations and, as appropriate and in accordance with
national law and practice, with other interested bodies.
Such policies and programmes should also
encourage undertakings to accept responsibility for training workers in their
employment. Undertakings should co-operate with the representatives of their
workers when planning their training programmes and should ensure, as far as
possible, that these programmes are in line with those of the public training
system.
The information and guidance should be supplemented by information on
general aspects of collective agreements and of the rights and
obligations of all concerned under labour law; this information should
be provided in accordance with national law and practice, taking into
account the respective functions and tasks of the workers' and
employers' organisations concerned.
Every effort should be made to develop and
utilise to the full, if necessary with public financing, existing and potential
vocational training capacity, including the resources available in undertakings,
in order to provide programmes of continuing vocational training.
Programmes of initial training for young
persons with little or no work experience should include in particular
general education which is co-ordinated with
practical training and related theoretical instruction;
basic training in knowledge and skills common
to several related occupations which could be given by an educational or
vocational training institution or in an undertaking either on or off the job;
specialisation in directly usable knowledge and
skills for employment opportunities which already exist or are to be created;
supervised initiation into a real work
situation.
Full-time courses of initial training should,
wherever possible, provide for adequate synchronisation between theoretical
tuition in training institutions and training given on the job in undertakings
in order to ensure that the former is related to the real work situation;
similarly, practical training off the job should, as far as possible, be related
to real work situations.
Training on the job arranged as an integral
part of courses given by training institutions should be planned jointly by the
undertakings, institutions and workers' representatives concerned with a view to
enabling the trainees to apply in actual
working conditions what they have learned off the job;
providing training in aspects of the occupation
which cannot be covered outside undertakings;
familiarising young persons with little or no
work experience with the requirements and conditions they are likely to
encounter at work and with their responsibilities within a working group.
Persons entering employement after completing
the full-time courses mentioned in Paragraph 19 above should receive
induction to familiarise them with the nature
and objectives of the undertaking and the conditions in which work is performed
there;
systematic complementary training on the job,
together with the necessary theoretical courses;
as far as possible, planned experience in a
series of activities and functions of training value, including adjustment to
the workplace.
The competent authorities should, in line with
national planning and national laws and regulations and after consultation of
employers' and workers' organisations, establish national or regional
further-training plans related to employment.
Undertakings should, in consultation with
workers' representatives, with the persons concerned and with those in charge of
their work, establish and review at regular intervals further-training plans for
persons in their employment at all levels of skill and responsibility; a joint
committee may be established for the purpose.
These plans should
provide opportunities to qualify for
advancement to higher levels of skill and responsibility;
cover technical and other training and work
experience for the persons concerned;
take account of the abilities and interests of
the persons concerned as well as of work requirements.
Persons in charge of the work of others should
have an obligation to make an effective contribution to the success of
further-training plans.
Organisational responsibility for the
establishment, implementation and review of further-training plans should be
clearly defined and should be assigned, as far as possible, to a special unit or
to one or more persons operating at a level commensurate with such
responsibility.
Workers being trained within an undertaking
should:
receive adequate allowances or remuneration;
be covered by the social security measures
applicable to the regular workforce of the undertaking concerned.
Workers receiving training off the job should
be granted educational leave in accordance with the terms of the Paid
Educational Leave Convention and Recommendation, 1974.
B. Vocational Training Standards and Guidelines
Initial and further training leading to recognised occupational
qualifications should be covered as far as possible by general standards
set or approved by the competent body, after consultation with the
employers' and workers' organisations concerned.
Vocational training standards and guidelines should be evaluated and
reviewed periodically, with the participation of employers' and workers'
organisations, and adjusted to changing requirements, the periodicity of
review being determined by the rate of change in the occupation concerned.
The competent authorities should, in line with national planning and
national laws and regulations and after consultation of employers' and
workers' organisations, establish plans for training for management and
supervisory functions and for self-employed persons.
Representatives of employers' and workers' organisations should be
included in the bodies responsible for governing publicly operated
training institutions and for supervising their operation; where such
bodies do not exist, representatives of employers' and workers'
organisations should in other ways participate in the setting-up,
management and supervision of such institutions.
Part II. Principles of Vocational
Rehabilitation and Employment Policies for Disabled Persons
Article 5
The representative organisations of employers and workers
shall be consulted on the implementation of the said policy, including the
measures to be taken to promote co-operation and co-ordination between the
public and private bodies engaged in vocational rehabilitation activities. The
representative organisations of and for disabled persons shall also be
consulted.
II. Vocational Rehabilitation and
Employment Opportunities
Such measures, in addition to those enumerated in Part
VII of the Vocational Rehabilitation (Disabled) Recommendation, 1955, should
include:
appropriate measures to create job opportunities on
the open labour market, including financial incentives to employers to
encourage them to provide training and subsequent employment for
disabled persons, as well as to make reasonable adaptations to
workplaces, job design, tools, machinery and work organisation to
facilitate such training and employment;
Vocational rehabilitation services in both urban and
rural areas and in remote communities should be organised and operated with
the fullest possible community participation, in particular with that of the
representatives of employers', workers' and disabled persons' organisations.
VI. The Contribution of Employers' and
Workers' Organisations to the Development of Vocational Rehabilitation Services
Employers' and workers' organisations should adopt a
policy for the promotion of training and suitable employment of disabled
persons on an equal footing with other workers.
Employers' and workers' organisations, together with
disabled persons and their organisations, should be able to contribute to
the formulation of policies concerning the organisation and development of
vocational rehabilitation services, as well as to carry out research and
propose legislation in this field.
Wherever possible and appropriate, representatives of
employers', workers' and disabled persons' organisations should be included
in the membership of the boards and committees of vocational rehabilitation
and training centres used by disabled persons, which make decisions on
policy and technical matters, with a view to ensuring that the vocational
rehabilitation programmes correspond to the requirements of the various
economic sectors.
Wherever possible and appropriate, employers and workers'
representatives in the undertaking should co-operate with appropriate
specialists in considering the possibilities for vocational rehabilitation
and job reallocation of disabled persons employed by that undertaking and
for giving employment to other disabled persons.
Wherever possible and appropriate, undertakings should be
encouraged to establish or maintain their own vocational rehabilitation
services, including various types of sheltered employment, in close
co-operation with community-based and other rehabilitation services.
Wherever possible and appropriate, employers'
organisations should take steps to:
advise their members on vocational rehabilitation
services which could be made available to disabled workers;
co-operate with bodies and institutions which promote
the reintegration of disabled persons into active working life by
providing, for instance, information on working conditions and job
requirements which disabled persons have to meet;
advise their members on adjustments which could be
made for disabled workers to the essential duties or requirements of
suitable jobs;
advise their members to consider the impact that
reorganising production methods might have, so that disabled persons are
not inadvertently displaced.
Wherever possible and appropriate, workers' organisations
should take steps to:
promote the participation of disabled workers in
discussions at the shop-floor level and in works councils or any other
body representing the workers;
propose guidelines for the vocational rehabilitation
and protection of workers who become disabled through sickness or
accident, whether work-related or not, and have such guidelines included
in collective agreements, regulations, arbitration awards or other
appropriate instruments;
offer advice on shop-floor arrangements affecting
disabled workers, including job adaption, special work organisation,
trial training and employment and the fixing of work norms;
raise the problems of vocational rehabilitation and
employment of disabled persons at trade union meetings and inform their
members, through publications and seminars, of the problems of and
possibilities for the vocational rehabilitation and employment of
disabled persons.
Vocational rehabilitation services should be
established and developed with the assistance of representative advisory
committees, set up at the national level and, where appropriate, at
regional and local levels.
These committees should, as appropriate, include
members drawn from among:
the authorities and bodies directly concerned
with vocational rehabilitation;
employers' and workers' organisations;
persons specially qualified to serve by reason of
their knowledge of, and concern with, the vocational rehabilitation
of the disabled; and
organisations of disabled persons.
These committees should be responsible for advising:
at the national level, on the development of
policy and programmes for vocational rehabilitation;
at regional and local levels, on the application
of measures taken nationally, their adaptation to regional and local
conditions and the co-ordination of regional and local activities.
Each Member should formulate a national policy for the
prevention of discrimination in employment and occupation. This policy
should be applied by means of legislative measures, collective agreements
between representative employers' and workers' organisations or in any other
manner consistent with national conditions and practice, and should have
regard to the following principles:
Each Member should:
promote their observance, where practicable and
necessary, in respect of other employment and other vocational guidance,
vocational training and placement services by such methods as:
encouraging state, provincial or local government
departments or agencies and industries and undertakings operated
under public ownership or control to ensure the application of the
principles;
making eligibility for contracts involving the
expenditure of public funds dependent on observance of the
principles;
making eligibility for grants to training
establishments and for a licence to operate a private employment
agency or a private vocational guidance office dependent on
observance of the principles.
Appropriate agencies, to be assisted where practicable by
advisory committees composed of representatives of employers' and workers'
organisations, where such exist, and of other interested bodies, should be
established for the purpose of promoting application of the policy in all
fields of public and private employment, and in particular:
to take all practicable measures to foster public
understanding and acceptance of the principles of non-discrimination;
to receive, examine and investigate complaints that
the policy is not being observed and, if necessary by conciliation, to
secure the correction of any practices regarded as in conflict with the
policy; and
to consider further any complaints which cannot be
effectively settled by conciliation and to render opinions or issue
decisions concerning the manner in which discriminatory practices
revealed should be corrected.
Each Member should repeal any statutory provisions and
modify any administrative instructions or practices which are inconsistent
with the policy.
Application of the policy should not adversely affect
special measures designed to meet the particular requirements of persons
who, for reasons such as sex, age, disablement, family responsibilities or
social or cultural status are generally recognised to require special
protection or assistance.
Any measures affecting an individual who is justifiably
suspected of, or engaged in, activities prejudicial to the security of the
State should not be deemed to be discrimination, provided that the
individual concerned has the right to appeal to a competent body established
in accordance with national practice.
With respect to immigrant workers of foreign nationality
and the members of their families, regard should be had to the provisions of
the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949, relating to
equality of treatment and the provisions of the Migration for Employment
Recommendation (Revised), 1949, relating to the lifting of restrictions on
access to employment.
There should be continuing co-operation between the
competent authorities, representatives of employers and workers and
appropriate bodies to consider what further positive measures may be
necessary in the light of national conditions to put the principles of
non-discrimination into effect.
The public authorities, employers' and workers'
organisations, and institutions or bodies providing education and training shall
be associated, in a manner appropriate to national conditions and practice, with
the formulation and application of the policy for the promotion of paid
educational leave.
The public authorities, employers' and workers'
organisations, and institutions or bodies providing education and training
should be associated, in a manner appropriate to national conditions and
practice, with the formulation and application of the policy for the
promotion of paid educational leave.
employers' and workers' organisations, may be
expected to contribute to the financing of arrangements for paid
educational leave according to their respective responsibilities.
In determining conditions of eligibility, account
should be taken of the types of education or training programmes
available and of the needs of workers and their organisations and of
undertakings, as well as of the public interest.
As regards paid educational leave for trade union
education, the workers' organisations concerned should have the
responsibility for selection of candidates.
The manner in which workers who satisfy the
conditions of eligibility are granted paid educational leave should be
agreed upon between undertakings or the employers' organisations
concerned and the workers' organisations concerned so as to ensure the
efficient continuing operation of the undertakings in question.
Representatives of employers and workers and their
organisations should be consulted in formulating policies for the
development and use of human capacities, and their co-operation should be
sought in the implementation of such policies, in the spirit of the
Consultation (Industrial and National Levels) Recommendation, 1960.
V. Action by Employers and Workers and
their Organisations
Employers and workers in the public and private
sectors, and their organisations, should take all practicable measures
to promote the achievement and maintenance of full, productive and
freely chosen employment.
In particular, they should:
consult one another, and as appropriate the
competent public authorities, employment services or similar
institutions, as far in advance as possible, with a view to working
out mutually satisfactory adjustments to changes in the employment
situation;
study trends in the economic and employment
situation, and in technical progress, and propose as appropriate,
and in good time, such action by governments and by public and
private undertakings as may safeguard within the framework of the
general interest the employment security and opportunities of the
workers;
promote wider understanding of the economic
background, of the reasons for changes in employment opportunities
in specific occupations, industries or regions, and of the necessity
of occupational and geographical mobility of manpower;
strive to create a climate which, without
prejudicing national sovereignty, economic independence or freedom
of association, will encourage increased investment from both
domestic and foreign sources, with positive effects on the economic
growth of the country;
provide or seek the provision of facilities such
as training and retraining facilities, and related financial
benefits;
promote wage, benefit and price policies that are
in harmony with the objectives of full employment, economic growth,
improved standards of living and monetary stability, without
endangering the legitimate objectives pursued by employers and
workers and their organisations; and
respect the principle of equality of opportunity
and treatment in employment and occupation, taking account of the
provisions of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation)
Convention and Recommendation, 1958.
In consultation and co-operation as appropriate with
workers' organisations and/or representatives of workers at the level of
the undertaking, and having regard to national economic and social
conditions, measures should be taken by undertakings to counteract
unemployment, to help workers find new jobs, to increase the number of
jobs available and to minimise the consequences of unemployment; such
measures may include:
retraining for other jobs within the undertaking;
transfers within the undertaking;
careful examination of, and action to overcome,
obstacles to increasing shift work;
the earliest possible notice to workers whose
employment is to be terminated, appropriate notification to public
authorities, and some form of income protection for workers whose
employment has been terminated, taking account of the provisions of
the Termination of Employment Recommendation, 1963.
III. Employment of Youth and
Disadvantaged Groups and Persons
Other special measures should be taken for young
people. In particular-
public and private institutions and undertakings
should be encouraged to engage and to train young people by means
appropriate to national conditions and practice;
although priority should be given to integrating
young persons into regular employment, special programmes might be
set up with a view to employing young people on a voluntary basis
for the execution of community projects, in particular local
projects having a social character, bearing in mind the provisions
of the Special Youth Schemes Recommendation, 1970;
special programmes should be set up in which
training and work alternate so as to assist young people in finding
their first job;
training opportunities should be adapted to
technical and economic development and the quality of training
should be improved;
measures should be taken to ease the transition
from school to work and to promote opportunities for employment on
completion of training;
research on employment prospects should be
promoted as a basis for a rational vocational training policy; and
the safety and health of young workers should be
protected.
Incentives appropriate to national conditions and
practice might be provided in order to facilitate the implementation of the
measures referred to in Paragraphs 15 to 17 of this Recommendation.
The direction and co-ordination of special schemes at the national level
should be achieved by means of some appropriate body or bodies established
by the competent authority.
The body or bodies should, wherever possible, include, in addition to
government members, representatives of workers', employers' and youth
organisations so as to ensure their active participation in the planning,
operation, co-ordination, inspection and evaluation of the special schemes.
In the performance of these tasks the body or bodies should, as necessary,
consult voluntary agencies and authorities responsible for such relevant
fields as labour, education, economic affairs, agriculture, industry and
social affairs.
The body or bodies should maintain continuous liaison with the authorities
responsible for regular educational and training programmes, in order to
ensure co-ordination with a view to the gradual elimination of special
schemes as rapidly as possible.
The active participation of local authorities should be sought in relation
to the choice and implementation of projects within the framework of special
schemes.
When establishing special schemes, the competent authority should
endeavour to provide sufficient financial and material resources and the
necessary qualified staff to ensure their full implementation. In this
connection particular attention should be given to ways in which the schemes
could generate their own sources of income. No financial contribution should
be required from the participant or his family.
Provision should be made for the systematic inspection and auditing of
special schemes.
Organisation at the local level should be such as to train and encourage
the participants gradually to take a share in the administration of their
scheme.
Members should adopt measures which are appropriate to
national conditions and consistent with national practice in order to recognize
and to promote the fundamental role that small and medium-sized enterprises can
play as regards:
In order to create an environment conducive to the growth
and development of small and medium-sized enterprises, Members should:
adopt and pursue appropriate fiscal, monetary and
employment policies to promote an optimal economic environment (as regards, in
particular, inflation, interest and exchange rates, taxation, employment and
social stability);
establish and apply appropriate legal provisions as
regards, in particular, property rights, including intellectual property,
location of establishments, enforcement of contracts, fair competition as well
as adequate social and labour legislation;
improve the attractiveness of entrepreneurship by
avoiding policy and legal measures which disadvantage those who wish to become
entrepreneurs.
The measures referred to in Paragraph 5 should be
complemented by policies for the promotion of efficient and competitive small
and medium-sized enterprises able to provide productive and sustainable
employment under adequate social conditions. To this end, Members should
consider policies that:
create conditions which:
provide for all enterprises, whatever their size or
type:
equal opportunity as regards, in particular, access to
credit, foreign exchange and imported inputs; and
fair taxation;
ensure the non-discriminatory application of labour
legislation, in order to raise the quality of employment in small and
medium-sized enterprises;
promote observance by small and medium-sized enterprises
of international labour standards related to child labour;
remove constraints to the development and growth of
small and medium-sized enterprises, arising in particular from:
difficulties of access to credit and capital markets;
low levels of technical and managerial skills;
inadequate information;
low levels of productivity and quality;
insufficient access to markets;
difficulties of access to new technologies;
lack of transport and communications infrastructure;
inappropriate, inadequate or overly burdensome
registration, licensing, reporting and other administrative requirements,
including those which are disincentives to the hiring of personnel, without
prejudicing the level of conditions of employme effectiveness of labour
inspection or the system of supervision of working conditions and related
issues;
insufficient support for research and development;
difficulties in access to public and private procurement
opportunities;
include specific measures and incentives aimed at
assisting and upgrading the informal sector to become part of the organized
sector.
With a view to the formulation of such policies Members
should, where appropriate:
collect national data on the small and medium-sized
enterprise sector, covering inter alia quantitative and qualitative aspects of
employment, while ensuring that this does not result in undue administrative
burdens for small and medium-sized enterprises;
undertake a comprehensive review of the impact of
existing policies and regulations on small and medium-sized enterprises, with
particular attention to the impact of structural adjustment programmes on job
creation;
review labour and social legislation, in consultation
with the most representative organizations of employers and workers, to
determine whether:
such legislation meets the needs of small and
medium-sized enterprises, while ensuring adequate protection and working
conditions for their workers;
there is a need for supplementary measures as regards
social protection, such as voluntary schemes, cooperative initiatives and
others;
such social protection extends to workers in small and
medium-sized enterprises and there are adequate provisions to ensure compliance
with social security regulations in areas such as medical care, sickness,
unemployment, old-age, employment injury, family, maternity, invalidity and
survivors' benefits.
In times of economic difficulties, governments should
seek to provide strong and effective assistance to small and medium-sized
enterprises and their workers.
In formulating these policies, Members:
may consult, in addition to the most representative
organizations of employers and workers, other concerned and competent parties as
they deem appropriate;
should take into account other policies in such areas as
fiscal and monetary matters, trade and industry, employment, labour, social
protection, gender equality, occupational safety and health and
capacity-building through education and training;
should establish mechanisms to review these policies, in
consultation with the most representative organizations of employers and
workers, and to update them.
The measures which should be considered with a view to
averting or minimising terminations of employment for reasons of an economic,
technological, structural or similar nature might include, inter alia,
restriction of hiring, spreading the workforce reduction over a certain period
of time to permit natural reduction of the workforce, internal transfers,
training and retraining, voluntary early retirement with appropriate income
protection, restriction of overtime and reduction of normal hours of work.
In the event of termination of employment for reasons of
an economic, technological, structural or similar nature, the placement of the
workers affected in suitable alternative employment as soon as possible, with
training or retraining where appropriate, should be promoted by measures
suitable to national circumstances, to be taken by the competent authority,
where possible with the collaboration of the employer and the workers'
representatives concerned.
