R115 - Workers' Housing Recommendation, 1961 (No. 115)

• Subject Matter: Política social,Social policy,Politique sociale
• Court: International Labour Organization

Preamble

The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,

Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Forty-fifth Session on 7 June 1961, and

Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals regarding workers' housing, which is the fifth item on the agenda of the session, and

Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Recommendation,

adopts this twenty-eighth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and sixty-one, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the ' Workers Housing Recommendation, 1961:

Whereas the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation provides that the Organisation shall promote the objects set forth in the Declaration of Philadelphia, which recognises the solemn obligation of the International Labour Organisation to further among the nations of the world programmes which will achieve the provision of adequate housing; and

Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations recognises that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including housing; and

Whereas the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation have agreed, as set forth in the Integrated Work Programme of the United Nations and the Specialised Agencies in the Field of Housing and Town and Country Planning, noted by the Economic and Social Council and by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office in 1949, that the United Nations has an over-all responsibility within the general field of housing and town and country planning and the International Labour Organisation a special concern for matters relating to workers' housing;

The Conference recommends that each Member should, within the framework of its general social and economic policy, give effect to the following General Principles in such manner as may be appropriate under national conditions:

GENERAL PRINCIPLES

I. Scope

1. 1. This Recommendation applies to the housing of manual and non-manual workers, including those who are self-employed and aged, retired or physically handicapped persons.

II. Objectives of National Housing Policy

1. 2. It should be an objective of national policy to promote, within the framework of general housing policy, the construction of housing and related community facilities with a view to ensuring that adequate and decent housing accommodation and a suitable living environment are made available to all workers and their families. A degree of priority should be accorded to those whose needs are most urgent.
2. 3. Attention should also be given to the upkeep, improvement and modernisation of existing housing and related community facilities.
3. 4. The aim should be that adequate and decent housing accommodation should not cost the worker more than a reasonable proportion of income, whether by way of rent for, or by way of payments towards the purchase of, such accommodation.
4. 5. Workers' housing programmes should provide adequate scope for private, co-operative and public enterprise in house building.
5. 6. In view of the fact that programmes of large-scale permanent housing construction may compete directly with programmes for economic growth and development--since scarce skilled and semi-skilled labour or scarce material resources may be needed for housing as well as for other types of production required for the expansion of production capacity--housing policy should be co-ordinated with general social and economic policy, so that workers' housing may be given a degree of priority which takes into account both the need therefor and the requirements of balanced economic development.
6. 7. Each family should have a separate, self-contained dwelling, if it so desires.

III. The Responsibility of Public Authorities

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   • (1) The competent national authorities, having due regard to the constitutional structure of the country concerned, should set up a central body with which should be associated all public authorities having some responsibility relating to housing.
   • (2) The responsibilities of the central body should include--

• (a) studying and assessing the needs for workers' housing and related community facilities; and
• (b) formulating workers' housing programmes, such programmes to include measures for slum clearance and the rehousing of occupiers of slum dwellings.

• (3) Representative employers' and workers' organisations, as well as other organisations concerned, should be associated in the work of the central body.

1. 9. National housing programmes should aim at ensuring, consistently with other national goals and within limits set by housing and related needs, that all private and public resources which can be made available for the purpose are co-ordinated and utilised for the construction of workers' housing and related community facilities.
2. 10. Where a substantial permanent increase of house-building capacity is required in order to meet national needs for workers' housing on a continuing basis, economic development programmes should include, consistently with other national goals, measures to provide in the long run the skilled manpower, materials, equipment and finance required for house building.
3. 11. Public authorities should, to the extent required and as far as practicable, assume responsibility either for providing directly or for stimulating the provision of workers' housing on a rental or home-ownership basis.

IV. Housing Provided by Employers

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   • (1) Employers should recognise the importance to them of the provision of housing for their workers on an equitable basis by public agencies or by autonomous private agencies, such as co-operative and other housing associations, separate from the employers' enterprises.
   • (2) It should be recognised that it is generally not desirable that employers should provide housing for their workers directly, with the exception of cases in which circumstances necessitate that employers provide housing for their workers, as, for instance, when an undertaking is located at a long distance from normal centres of population, or where the nature of the employment requires that the worker should be available at short notice.
   • (3) In cases where housing is provided by the employer--

• (a) the fundamental human rights of the workers, in particular freedom of association, should be recognised;
• (b) national law and custom should be fully respected in terminating the lease or occupancy of such housing on termination of the workers' contracts of employment; and
• (c) rents charged should be in conformity with the principle set out in Paragraph 4 above, and in any case should not include a speculative profit.

• (4) The provision by employers of accommodation and communal services in payment for work should be prohibited or regulated to the extent necessary to protect the interests of the workers.

V. Financing

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   • (1) The competent authorities should take such measures as are...