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 Sixty-first Session on 2 June 1976, and
Recalling the terms of existing international labour Conventions and Recommendations - in particular the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948, the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949, and the Consultation (Industrial and National Levels) Recommendation, 1960 - which affirm the right of employers and workers to establish free and independent organisations and call for measures to promote effective consultation at the national level between public authorities and employers' and workers' organisations, as well as the provisions of numerous international labour Conventions and Recommendations which provide for the consultation of employers' and workers' organisations on measures to give effect thereto, and
Having considered the fourth item on the agenda of the session which is entitled "Establishment of tripartite machinery to promote the implementation of international labour standards, and having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals concerning tripartite consultations to promote the implementation of international labour standards and national action relating to the activities of the International Labour Organisation, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation,
adopts this twenty-first day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred seventy-six, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Tripartite Consultation (Activities of the International Labour Organisation) Recommendation, 1976:
- 1. In this Recommendation the term representative organisations means the most representative organisations of employers and workers enjoying the right of freedom of association.
- 2.
- (1) Each Member of the International Labour Organisation should operate procedures which ensure effective consultations with respect to matters concerning the activities of the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with Paragraphs 5 to 7 of this Recommendation, between representatives of the government, of employers and of workers.
- (2) The nature and form of the procedures provided for in subparagraph (1) of this Paragraph should be determined in each country in accordance with national practice, after consultation with the representative organisations where such procedures have not yet been established.
- (3) For instance, consultations may be undertaken--
- (a) through a committee specifically constituted for questions concerning the activities of the International Labour Organisation;
- (b) through a body with general competence in the economic, social or labour field;
- (c) through a number of bodies with special responsibility for particular subject areas; or
- (d) through written communications, where those involved in the consultative procedures are agreed that such communications are appropriate and sufficient.
- 3.
- (1) The representatives of employers and workers for the purposes of the procedures provided for in this Recommendation should be freely chosen by their representative organisations.
- (2) Employers and workers should be represented on an equal footing on any bodies through which consultations are undertaken.
- (3) Measures should be taken, in co-operation with the employers' and workers' organisations concerned, to make available appropriate training to enable participants in the procedures to perform their functions effectively.
- 4. The competent authority should assume responsibility for the administrative support and financing of the procedures provided for in this Recommendation, including the financing of training programmes where necessary.
- 5. The purpose of the procedures provided for in this Recommendation should be consultations--
- (a) on government replies to questionnaires concerning items on the agenda of the International Labour Conference and government comments on proposed texts to be discussed by the Conference;
- (b) on the proposals to be made to the competent authority or authorities in connection with the submission of Conventions and Recommendations pursuant to article 19 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation;
- (c) subject to national practice, on the preparation and implementation of legislative or other measures to give effect to international labour Conventions and Recommendations, in particular to ratified Conventions (including measures for the implementation of provisions concerning the consultation or collaboration of employers' and workers' representatives);
- (d) on the re-examination at appropriate intervals of unratified Conventions and of Recommendations to which effect has not yet been given, to consider what measures might be taken to promote their implementation and ratification as appropriate;
- (e) on questions arising out of reports to be made to the International Labour Office under articles 19 and 22 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation;
- (f) on proposals for the denunciation of ratified Conventions.
- 6. The competent authority, after consultation with the representative organisations, should determine the extent to which these procedures should be used for the purpose of consultations on other matters of mutual concern, such as--
- (a) the preparation, implementation and evaluation of technical co-operation activities in which the International Labour Organisation participates;
- (b) the action to be taken in respect of resolutions and other conclusions adopted by the International Labour Conference, regional conferences, industrial committees and other meetings convened by the International Labour Organisation;
- (c) the promotion of a better knowledge of the activities of the International Labour Organisation as an element for use in economic and social policies and programmes.
- 7. In order to ensure adequate consideration of the matters referred to in the preceding Paragraphs, consultations should be undertaken at appropriate intervals fixed by agreement, but at least once a year.
- 8. Measures appropriate to national conditions and practice should be taken to ensure co-ordination between the procedures provided for in this Recommendation and the activities of national bodies dealing with analogous questions.
- 9. When this is considered appropriate after consultation with the representative organisations, the competent authority should issue an annual report on the working of the procedures provided for in this Recommendation.
