Health, Safety and Environment - International Labour Organization

Manual 6:HOW TO RATIFY & USE ILO CONVENTION NO. 184ON SAFETY & HEALTH IN AGRICULTUREConvention No. 184 is also complemented by other ILO Conventions onsafety and health:Convention No. 155.concerning Occupational Safety and Health andthe Working Environment (plus Recommendation No. 164),Convention No. 161 concerning Occupational Health Services (plusRecommendation No. 171)Convention No. 170 concerning Safety in the Use of Chemicals at Work(plus Recommendation No. 177) Ratification – the process and timetableProcedureTwo countries need to ratify a Convention for it to enter into force.Ratification of a Convention is a free act by a country. However, if a countrydecides to ratify, the Convention acquires a binding force at the nationallevel and must be applied by legislative or other means.Soon after the International Labour Conference adopted the Conventionand Recommendation in June 2001, the ILO secretariat wrote to everymember state enclosing the final texts of the Convention andRecommendation and copies of the same documents were also sent tonational organisations of employers and workers. Governments then hadone year (18 months in exceptional circumstances) to submit theConvention and recommendation to the appropriate body – this is almostalways the parliament or National Assembly. This is an obligation underthe ILO Constitution (Article 19).When placing the text before the parliament, the Government mustindicate what action it considers desirable. It is good practice (and anobligation under ILO Convention 144 if that has been adopted) to consultunions before making its suggestions.Governments then have to report back to the ILO indicating: the measures they have taken to bring the Convention and theRecommendation to the attention of the competent authorities who or what is the “competent authority” concerned the action taken by this authorityIn practice, Governments really have four options:1. If national law or practice are already of a very high standard, and areas good as those of those of the Convention, then the governmentcould recommend ratification278 Health, Safety and EnvironmentA Series of Trade Union EducationManuals for Agricultural Workers