Universal-MigrationHRlaw-PG-no-6-Publications-PractitionersGuide-2014-eng

MIGRATION AND INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW | 277enjoyment of labour and employment rights, including the freedom ofassembly and association, once an employment relationship has beeninitiated until it is terminated”. 1168b) ILO ConventionsThe ILO Migration for Employment Convention (Revised) (No. 97) of1949 mandates States to eliminate discrimination based on nationality,race, religion or sex, towards immigrants lawfully within theirterritory by assuring them a treatment not less favourable than thatof their nationals in respect of “remuneration, including family allowanceswhere these form part of remuneration, hours of work, overtimearrangements, holidays with pay, restrictions on home work, minimumage for employment, apprenticeship and training, women’s work andthe work of young persons”. 1169 The Committee of Experts of the ILOfound that the fact that “higher wages are being paid to local domestichelpers than those paid to foreign domestic helpers, or to those nationalworkers in comparable job categories, [. . .] would contravene theConvention’s goal of equal treatment between migrant workers and nationalsas regards remuneration.” 1170 Furthermore, it declared that theimposition of a special tax on foreign workers, or on the employers offoreign workers, which has the effect of considerably reducing the salaryof a migrant worker in comparison to that of a national, is in breach ofthe equality of treatment with regard to remuneration (Article 6.1(a)(i)Convention No. 97). 1171The ILO Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention(No. 143) of 1975 provides in its Article 1 that States “undertake to respectthe basic human rights of all migrant workers”. 1172 This provisionconcerns all migrant workers, regardless of their status. 1173 It is theonly provision of the two ILO Conventions directly dealing with migrantworkers that does not exclude undocumented migrants from its application.The Committee of Experts has clarified that “basic human rights”refers to “the fundamental human rights contained in the internationalinstruments adopted by the UN in this domain, which include some fundamentalrights of workers.” 11741168 Ibid., para. 351169 Article 6.1(a)(i), Migration for Employment Convention (Revised) (C97), ILO. The sameis expressed by Article 19.4.1 ESC(r). The ILO Convention has been ratified by only 49States.1170 TUCP v. China, ILO, op. cit., fn. 1046, para. 32.1171 Ibid., paras. 35–37.1172 Article 1, Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention (C143), ILO. The ILOConvention has been ratified by only 23 States.1173 General Survey on Migrant Workers, ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventionsand Recommendations, 1999, Document No. (ilolex): 251999G01, para. 297.1174 Ibid., para. 296. Footnote No. 19 referes to UDHR, ICCPR, ICESCR, ICRMW, etc.