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 Thirty-seventh Session on 2 June 1954, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to holidays with pay, which is the seventh item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation,
adopts this twenty-third day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and fifty-four, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Holidays with Pay Recommendation, 1954:
The Conference recommends that the following provisions should be applied and that each Member should report to the International Labour Office as requested by the Governing Body concerning the measures taken to give effect thereto.
- 1.
- (1) Having regard to the variety of national practices, the provisions of this Recommendation may be given effect by means of public or voluntary action, through legislation, statutory wage fixing machinery, collective agreements or arbitration awards, or in any other manner consistent with national practice, as may be appropriate under national conditions.
- (2) The adoption of any procedures specified in subparagraph (1) should not prejudice the particular concern of governments to call into action all appropriate constitutional or legal machinery when voluntary action, action by employers' and workers' organisations or collective agreements do not give speedy and satisfactory results.
- 2. The following forms of action might be considered, inter alia, by the competent authority in the various countries, wherever appropriate:
- (a) encouraging the provision of holidays with pay through collective agreements freely concluded by both parties participating in collective bargaining machinery;
- (b) assisting employers' and workers' organisations to establish joint voluntary machinery, or establishing, where necessary, statutory machinery, which would, inter alia, be competent to determine annual holidays with pay in a particular trade or activity;
- (c) granting powers in the field of annual holidays with pay to existing statutory wage fixing bodies where these bodies do not already possess such powers;
- (d) collecting detailed information regarding provisions governing annual holidays with pay, and making such information available to employers' and workers' organisations.
- 3. This Recommendation applies to all employed persons, with the exception of seafarers, agricultural workers and persons employed in undertakings or establishments in which only members of the employer's family are engaged.
- 4.
- (1) Every person covered by this Recommendation should be entitled to an annual holiday with pay. The duration of the annual holiday with pay should be proportionate to the length of service performed with one or more employers during the year concerned and should be not less than two working weeks for twelve months of service.
- (2) The appropriate machinery in each country may, where appropriate, determine--
- (a) the number of days which a worker should have worked to become eligible for the annual holiday with pay or for a proportion thereof;
- (b) the method of calculating the period of service of a worker in a particular year for the purpose of determining the annual holiday with pay to be taken by him in respect of that year.
- (3) It should be left to the appropriate machinery in each country to provide that, where employment ceases before the worker has completed the service necessary to become eligible for an annual holiday with pay in accordance with the provisions of subparagraphs (1) and (2) above, he should be entitled to a holiday with pay proportionate to the period of service performed or to compensation in lieu thereof or to the equivalent holiday credit, whichever is the more practicable.
- 5. The appropriate machinery in each country should determine the days such as public or customary holidays, days of weekly rest, days of absence from work on account of accident at work or sickness, and periods of rest occasioned by pre- and post-natal care which are not to be counted as days of holiday with pay for the purpose of these provisions.
- 6. It should be left to the appropriate machinery in each country to determine whether the duration of the annual holiday with pay should increase with length of service or by reason of other factors.
- 7.
- (1) Interruptions of work during which the worker receives wages should not affect entitlement to or the duration of the annual holiday with pay.
- (2) Interruptions of work which do not give rise to a termination of the employment relationship or contract should not affect any entitlement to a holiday with pay which has been accumulated prior to the interruption.
- (3) The appropriate machinery in each country should determine the manner in which the principles set out in subparagraphs (1) and (2) above should be applied to interruptions of work occasioned by--
- (a) sickness, accident and periods of rest occasioned by pre- and post-natal care;
- (b) absences on account of family events;
- (c) military obligations;
- (d) the exercise of civic rights and duties;
- (e) the performance of duties arising from trade union responsibilities;
- (f) changes in the management of the undertaking;
- (g) intermittent involuntary unemployment.
- 8. The entitlement of a worker to the annual holiday with pay and the duration of such holiday should not be affected by interruptions occasioned by pregnancy and confinement if the worker concerned resumes employment and if her absence does not exceed a specified period.
- 9.
- (1) There should be consultation between employers and workers regarding the time when the annual holiday with pay is to be taken. In determining this time the personal wishes of the worker should be taken into consideration as far as possible.
- (2) The worker should be notified of the date at which the annual holiday with pay is to begin sufficiently in advance so that he can make use of his holiday in an appropriate manner.
- 10. Young workers under eighteen years of age should receive a longer period of annual holiday with pay than the minimum provided for in paragraph 4.
- 11. Every person taking an annual holiday with pay should receive in respect of the full period of the holiday, at the minimum, either--
- (a) the remuneration determined for such holiday period by collective agreements, arbitration awards or national laws and regulations; or
- (b) his normal remuneration, as prescribed by national laws or regulations or by any other means established by national practice, including the cash equivalent of his remuneration in kind, if any.
- 12. It should be left to collective agreements, arbitration awards, or national laws and regulations, to prescribe the system of holiday records which should be maintained and the particulars which should be included in such records, as may be necessary for the proper administration of provisions or regulations concerning annual holidays with pay.
- 13. Preliminary consultation, in such a manner and to such an extent as may be consistent with national laws and practice, should take place between representative organisations of employers and workers and the competent authorities prior to the framing of laws or regulations governing annual holidays with pay.
- 14. Representative organisations of employers and workers should be given an opportunity to participate on a basis of complete equality in the operation of bodies entrusted by national laws or regulations with the determination of annual holidays with pay or in the implementation of regulations concerning annual holidays with pay, or should be consulted or have a right to be heard in such a manner and to such an extent as may be consistent with national laws and practice.
