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 Forty-eighth Session on 17 June 1964, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to benefits in the case of industrial accidents and occupational diseases, which is the fifth item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation supplementing the Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964,
adopts this eighth day of July of the year one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Employment Injury Benefits Recommendation, 1964:
- 1. In this Recommendation--
- (a) the term legislation includes any social security rules as well as laws and regulations;
- (b) the term prescribed means determined by or in virtue of national legislation;
- (c) the term dependent refers to a state of dependency which is presumed to exist in prescribed cases.
- 2. Each Member should extend the application of its legislation providing for employment injury benefits, if necessary by stages, to any categories of employees which may have been excepted in virtue of Article 4, paragraph 2, of the Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964, from the protection provided for in that Convention.
- 3.
- (1) Each Member should, subject to prescribed conditions, secure the provision of employment injury or analogous benefits, if necessary by stages and/or through voluntary insurance, to--
- (a) members of co-operatives who are engaged in the production of goods or the provision of services;
- (b) prescribed categories of self-employed persons, in particular persons owning and actively engaged in the operation of small-scale businesses or farms;
- (c) certain categories of persons working without pay, which should include--
- (i) persons in training, undergoing an occupational or trade test or otherwise preparing for their future employment, including pupils and students;
- (ii) members of volunteer bodies charged with combating natural disasters, with saving lives and property or with maintaining law and order;
- (iii) other categories of persons not otherwise covered who are active in the public interest or engaged in civic or benevolent pursuits, such as persons volunteering their services for public office, social service or hospitals;
- (iv) prisoners and other detained persons doing work which has been required or approved by the competent authorities.
- (2) The financial resources of voluntary insurance for the categories referred to in subparagraph (1) of this Paragraph should not be provided from contributions intended to finance the compulsory schemes for employees.
- 4. Special schemes applicable to seafarers, including seafishermen, and to public servants should provide benefits in case of an employment injury which are not less favourable than those provided for in the Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964.
- 5. Each Member should, under prescribed conditions, treat the following as industrial accidents:
- (a) accidents, regardless of their cause, sustained during working hours at or near the place of work or at any place where the worker would not have been except for his employment;
- (b) accidents sustained within reasonable periods before and after working hours in connection with transporting, cleaning, preparing, securing, conserving, storing and packing work tools or clothes;
- (c) accidents sustained while on the direct way between the place of work and--
- (i) the employee's principal or secondary residence; or
- (ii) the place where the employee usually takes his meals; or
- (iii) the place where he usually receives his remuneration.
- 6.
- (1) Each Member should, under prescribed conditions, regard diseases known to arise out of the exposure to substances or dangerous conditions in processes, trades or occupations as occupational diseases.
- (2) Unless proof to the contrary is brought, there should be a presumption of the occupational origin of such diseases where the employee--
- (a) was exposed for at least a specified period; and
- (b) has developed symptoms of the disease within a specified period following termination of the last employment involving exposure.
- (3) When prescribing and bringing up to date national lists of occupational diseases, Members should give special consideration to any list of occupational diseases which may from time to time be approved by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office.
- 7. Where national legislation contains a list establishing a presumption of occupational origin in respect of certain diseases, proof should be permitted of the occupational origin of diseases not so listed and of diseases listed when they manifest themselves under conditions different from those establishing a presumption of their occupational origin.
- 8. Cash benefits in respect of incapacity for work should be paid from the first day in each case of suspension of earnings.
- 9. The rates of cash benefits in respect of temporary or initial incapacity for work, or in respect of total loss of earning capacity likely to be permanent, or corresponding loss of faculty, should be--
- (a) not less than two-thirds of the injured person's earnings: Provided that a maximum limit may be prescribed for the rate of benefit or for the earnings taken into account for the calculation of the benefit; or
- (b) where such benefits are provided at flat rates, not less than two-thirds of the average earnings of persons employed in the major group of economic activities with the largest number of economically active male persons.
- 10.
- (1) The cash benefit payable by reason of loss of earning capacity likely to be permanent, or corresponding loss of faculty, should take the form of a periodical payment for the duration of such loss in all cases in which the degree of loss equals at least 25 per cent.
- (2) In cases in which the degree of loss of earning capacity likely to be permanent, or corresponding loss of faculty, is less than 25 per cent. a lump sum may be paid in lieu of a periodical payment. Such lump sum should bear an equitable relationship to periodical payments and should not be less than the periodical payments which would be due in respect of a period of three years.
- 11. Provision should be made to defray the reasonable cost of the constant help or attendance of another person in cases in which the injured person requires such services; alternatively, the periodical payment should be increased by either a prescribed percentage or a prescribed amount.
- 12. Where an employment injury entails unemployability or disfigurement and this is not taken fully into account in the evaluation of the loss sustained by the injured person, supplementary or special benefits should be provided.
- 13. Where the periodical payments made to the surviving spouse and children are less than the maximum amounts prescribed, a periodical payment should be made to the following categories of persons if they were dependent on the deceased for support:
- (a) parents;
- (b) brothers and sisters;
- (c) grandchildren.
- 14. Where a maximum limit upon the total benefits payable to all the survivors is prescribed, such maximum should be not less than the rate of benefits payable in respect of total loss of earning capacity likely to be permanent, or corresponding loss of faculty.
- 15. The rates of cash benefits currently payable pursuant to paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article 14 and to paragraph 1 of Article 18 of the Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964, should be periodically adjusted, taking account of changes in the general level of earnings or the cost of living.
