Employers' Handbook on ILO Standards-related Activities

Appendix 5
Sample of the letter sent yearly
by the Office to the national employers’ and workers’
organizations regarding their role
in the implementation of ILS
Dear Madam/Sir,
March,
As a Member of the International Labour Organization, your country is required under the
Constitution of the ILO to fulfil certain obligations relating to Conventions, Recommendations
and Protocols adopted by the International Labour Conference.
In this context, within a period of 12 or exceptionally 18 months from the end of each
session of the Conference, your Government has to submit the instruments adopted at that
session to the authority or authorities within whose competence the matter covered by these
instruments lies, for the enactment of legislation or other action. It must inform the International
Labour Office of the measures taken to this end.
In addition, your Government is called upon to supply regular reports to the ILO on the
application of ILO Conventions ratified by your country. Member States also have to report to
the ILO each year on national legislation and practice relating to matters dealt with in certain
Conventions and Protocols that may not have been ratified and in Recommendations, as designated
by the Governing Body of the ILO. The reports requested this year in this respect concern
the ——— Convention (No. — ) and ——— Recommendation (No. —), —— (year of
adoption). Your Government should, therefore, supply a report on these instruments by 30 April
(of the following year), at the latest.
The ILO Constitution further requires the governments of member States to communicate
copies of the information and reports described above to the representative organizations of
employers and workers in their countries. The organizations of employers and workers concerned
may make observations on the subject-matter of these reports and on compliance with
the various obligations relating to ILO Conventions. Thus, national employers’ and workers’
organizations participate actively in the implementation of international labour standards. Organizations
usually address their observations directly to the Government so that it may communicate
them to the ILO with any comments it wishes to make. Such observations may also
be sent directly to the ILO, in which case the Office communicates them to the Government
concerned for comment.
The Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations in
November/December (of the same year) will examine the reports and information supplied by
governments, together with any observations on them received by the ILO from organizations
of employers and workers. The tripartite Conference Committee on the Application of Standards
will itself examine the report of that Committee at the session of the International Labour
Conference in June (of the the following year).
99