Preamble
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 Twentieth Session on 4 June 1936, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to annual holidays with pay, which is the second item on the agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation,
adopts this twenty-fourth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred thirty-six, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Holidays with Pay Recommendation, 1936:
The Conference,
Having adopted a Convention concerning annual holidays with pay for employed persons,
Considering that the purpose of such holidays is to secure to employed persons opportunities for rest, recreation and the development of their faculties,
Considering that the conditions laid down by the Convention constitute the minimum standard to which any system of holidays with pay should conform,
Considering that it is desirable to deal in greater detail with the methods of applying the system,
Recommends that each Member should take the following suggestions into consideration:
- 1.
- (1) The continuity of service required in order to become entitled to a holiday should not be affected by interruptions occasioned by sickness or accident, family events, military service, the exercise of civic rights, changes in the management of the undertaking in which the employed person is employed, or intermittent involuntarily unemployment if the duration of the unemployment does not exceed a prescribed limit and if the person concerned resumes employment.
- (2) In employments in which work is not carried on regularly throughout the year the condition of continuity of employment should be regarded as satisfied by the working of a prescribed number of days during a prescribed period.
- (3) The holiday should be earned after one year's work, regardless whether this period has been spent in the employment of the same or of several employers.Each Government should take effective steps to ensure that the cost arising from the granting of the holidays shall not fall entirely upon the last employer.
- 2. Although it may be desirable that provision should be made in special cases for holidays to be divided, care should be exercised to ensure that such special arrangements do not run counter to the purpose of the holiday, which is to enable the employed person to make good the loss of physical and mental forces during the course of the year. In other cases division of the holiday should be restricted, save in quite exceptional circumstances, to division into not more than two parts, one of which should not be less than the prescribed minimum.
- 3. It would be desirable that the increase in the length of the holiday with the duration of service should begin to operate as soon as possible and should be effected by regular stages so that a prescribed minimum will be attained after a prescribed number of years, for example, twelve working days after seven years of service.
- 4. The fairest method of calculating the remuneration of a person paid in whole or in part on an output or piece-work basis would be to calculate the average earnings over a fairly long period so as to nullify as far as possible the effect of fluctuations in earnings.
- 5. It would be desirable that the Members should consider whether a more advantageous system should not be established for young persons and apprentices under eighteen years of age in order to ease the transition from school to industrial life during a period of physical development.
