Decision concerning the report of the ninth meeting of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group (Geneva, 16–20 September 2024)

The Governing Body took note of the report of the Officers concerning the ninth meeting of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group (SRM TWG) and, in approving its recommendations:

(a) welcomed the SRM TWG’s consensual recommendations on the seven topics it was called upon to review and regretted that it was not able to reach consensual recommendations on the possible future abrogation or withdrawal of six outdated instruments on the agenda at its ninth meeting;

(b) noted that, pending research and discussion by later tripartite meetings to be determined by the Governing Body, it had postponed its decisions on the classification of the instruments concerning certification and vocational training (fishers) and marking of weights (dock work), and on the existence of gaps in coverage in relation to certification and vocational training (fishers), marking of weight (dock work) and older workers;

(c) decided that the instruments concerning fishers, dock work, hours of work (inland navigation), labour standards (non-metropolitan territories), working conditions (hotels and restaurants), older workers and indigenous and tribal peoples that were reviewed by the SRM TWG at its ninth meeting should be considered to have the classifications it recommended and noted that the three instruments in relation to which a decision as to classification was postponed would retain their current classifications as instruments to be revised until it took any decision otherwise;

(d) called upon the Organization and its tripartite constituents to take concerted steps to follow up on all its recommendations as organized by the SRM TWG into practical and time-bound packages of follow-up action;

(e) requested the Office to take the necessary action in follow-up to the recommendations of the SRM TWG at this and previous meetings as a matter of institutional priority;

(f) requested the Office to take the necessary steps to conduct surveys and undertake research as set out in the SRM TWG’s recommendations to be discussed by tripartite meetings on fishers, dock work, hotels and restaurants, older workers and indigenous and tribal peoples, to be determined by the Governing Body at the earliest date possible, so as to enable the SRM TWG or Governing Body as appropriate to determine next steps;

(g) asked the Office to provide the 353rd Session of the Governing Body (March 2025) with full estimates for the costs for the meetings approved above for the current biennium which could be met from savings in Part 1 of the budget; and include provisions in the 2026–27 budget cycle for those meetings falling in that period;

(h) noted the SRM TWG’s recommendations concerning the abrogation and withdrawal of certain instruments, in relation to which it will consider:

(i) placing an item concerning the withdrawal of Convention No. 83 on the agenda of the 114th Session of the International Labour Conference (2026);

(ii) placing an item concerning the abrogation of Convention No. 112 on the agenda of the 118th Session of the International Labour Conference (2030);

(i) decided to convene the tenth meeting of the SRM TWG from 15 to 19 September 2025, at which it should review 14 instruments, and examine the follow-up to 7 outdated instruments, concerning working time, including night work, as included in sets of instruments 8 and 11 of the SRM TWG’s initial programme of work.

(GB.352/LILS/3, paragraph 6)