The International Labour Organisation

In one line

The International Labour Organisation is the oldest of the specialized agencies, founded in 1919 as part of the peace settlement, and its distinguishing feature is tripartism: governments, employers and workers all sit and vote.

Origin and object

The Organisation was created by Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, as an organ of the League of Nations, and it survived the League. In 1946 it became the first specialized agency brought into relationship with the United Nations under article 57 of the Charter, and its Constitution was amended for that purpose.

The Preamble opens with the proposition the whole Organisation rests on: universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice.

It goes on: conditions of labour exist involving such injustice, hardship and privation to large numbers of people as to produce unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperilled, and an improvement of those conditions is urgently required. The Preamble then lists the examples, and they are worth knowing because they are the Organisation's original programme: the regulation of the hours of work, including a maximum working day and week; the regulation of the labour supply; the prevention of unemployment; the provision of an adequate living wage; the protection of the worker against sickness, disease and injury arising out of his employment; the protection of children, young persons and women; provision for old age and injury; protection of the interests of workers when employed in countries other than their own; recognition of the principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value; recognition of the principle of freedom of association; and the organisation of vocational and technical education.

A further recital states that the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve the conditions in their own countries. That is the economic argument for international labour standards, and it is the reason the subject cannot be left to each State alone: a State that improves conditions alone bears a cost its competitors do not.

The Declaration of Philadelphia, 10 May 1944

Adopted by the General Conference at its twenty-sixth session and annexed to the Constitution, so it is part of the constituent instrument and not a mere resolution.

Part I reaffirms the fundamental principles, in particular:

(a) labour is not a commodity;

(b) freedom of expression and of association are essential to sustained progress;

(c) poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere;

(d) the war against want requires to be carried on with unrelenting vigour within each nation, and by continuous and concerted international effort in which the representatives of workers and employers, enjoying equal status with those of Governments, join with them in free discussion and democratic decision with a view to the promotion of the common welfare.