Employers' Handbook on ILO Standards-related Activities

For more detail, see:
INTRODUCTION
ILO fundamental Conventions
l Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29)
l Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise
Convention, 1948 (No. 87)
l Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)
l Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100)
l Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1956 (No. 105)
l Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111)
l Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)
l Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)
l ILO: Summaries of international labour standards (Geneva, 1991);
l ILO: International Labour Conventions and Recommendations 1919 – 1995, Volumes
I, II and III (Geneva, 1996) + leaflets containing the text of individual Conventions
and Recommendations adopted after 1995;
l ILO website: www.ilo.org (International Labour Standards).
History of ILO standard-setting
Already in the nineteenth century, as a result of increasing industrialization, a need
was felt for the promotion of better labour conditions by way of regulation at international
level.
At international conferences in Berlin (1890) and Brussels (1897) attempts were
made to set up an international labour standard-setting machinery. These attempts,
however, did not bear fruit.
In 1901, the International Association for Labour Legislation was founded in
Basel. The Association held international conferences in Bern in 1905 and 1906,
which adopted two international labour conventions (reduction of white lead; ban on
night shifts in industry for women workers). The outbreak of the First World War in
1914 prevented the adoption of further instruments.
In 1919, as Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles, the ILO was founded and standard-setting
began the same year with the adoption of six Conventions and six Recommendations.
In contrast to the International Association for Labour Legislation, the
ILO involved workers’ and employers’ representatives from member States in its standard-setting
work right from the beginning. The objective was to benefit from their
particular experience in labour questions in order to make ILS realistic and widely
applicable.
In the period between the two World Wars, the ILO adopted ILS on the minimum
age for employment, hours of work, weekly rest, holidays with pay and maternity
protection, among others.
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