R122 - Employment Policy Recommendation, 1964 (No. 122)

• Subject Matter: Política y promoción del empleo,Employment policy and promotion,Politique et promotion de l'emploi
• 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-eighth Session on 17 June 1964, and

Considering that the Declaration of Philadelphia recognises the solemn obligation of the International Labour Organisation to further among the nations of the world programmes which will achieve full employment and the raising of standards of living, and that the Preamble to the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation provides for the prevention of unemployment and the provision of an adequate living wage, and

Considering further that under the terms of the Declaration of Philadelphia it is the responsibility of the International Labour Organisation to examine and consider the bearing of economic and financial policies upon employment policy in the light of the fundamental objective that all human beings, irrespective of race, creed or sex, have the right to pursue both their material well-being and their spiritual development in conditions of freedom and dignity, of economic security and equal opportunity, and

Considering that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment, and

Noting the terms of existing international labour Conventions and Recommendations of direct relevance to employment policy, and in particular of the Employment Service Convention and Recommendation, 1948, the Vocational Guidance Recommendation, 1949, the Vocational Training Recommendation, 1962, and the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention and Recommendation, 1958, and

Considering that these instruments should be placed in the wider framework of an international programme for economic expansion on the basis of full, productive and freely chosen employment, and

Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to employment policy, which are included in the eighth item on the agenda of the session, and

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

adopts this ninth day of July of the year one thousand nine hundred and sixty-four, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Employment Policy Recommendation, 1964:

I. Objectives of Employment Policy

1. 1
   • (1) With a view to stimulating economic growth and development, raising levels of living, meeting manpower requirements and overcoming unemployment and underemployment, each Member should declare and pursue, as a major goal, an active policy designed to promote full, productive and freely chosen employment.
   • (2) The said policy should aim at ensuring that--

• (a) there is work for all who are available for and seeking work;
• (b) such work is as productive as possible;
• (c) there is freedom of choice of employment and the fullest possible opportunity for each worker to qualify for, and to use his skills and endowments in, a job for which he is well suited, irrespective of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin.

• (3) The said policy should take due account of the stage and level of economic development and the mutual relationships between employment objectives and other economic and social objectives, and should be pursued by methods that are appropriate to national conditions and practice.

II. General Principles of Employment Policy

1. 2. The aims of employment policy should be clearly and publicly defined, wherever possible in the form of quantitative targets for economic growth and employment.
2. 3. Representatives of employers and workers and their organisations should be consulted in formulating policies for the development and use of human capacities, and their co-operation should be sought in the implementation of such policies, in the spirit of the Consultation (Industrial and National Levels) Recommendation, 1960.
3. 4
   • (1) Employment policy should be based on analytical studies of the present and future size and distribution of the labour force, employment, unemployment and underemployment.
   • (2) Adequate resources should be devoted to the collection of statistical data, to the preparation of analytical studies and to the distribution of the results.
4. 5
   • (1) Each Member should recognise the importance of building up the means of production and developing human capacities fully, for example through education, vocational guidance and training, health services and housing, and should seek and maintain an appropriate balance in expenditure for these different purposes.
   • (2) Each Member should take the necessary measures to assist workers, including young people and other new entrants to the labour force, in finding suitable and productive employment and in adapting themselves to the changing needs of the economy.
   • (3) In the application of this Paragraph particular account should be taken of the Vocational Guidance Recommendation, 1949, the Vocational Training Recommendation, 1962, and the Employment Service Convention and Recommendation, 1948.
5. 6
   • (1) Employment policy should be co-ordinated with, and carried out within the framework of, over-all economic and social policy, including economic planning or programming in countries where these are used as instruments of policy.
   • (2) Each Member should, in consultation with and having regard to the autonomy and responsibility in certain of the areas concerned of employers and workers and their organisations, examine the relationship between measures of employment policy and other major decisions in the sphere of economic and social policy, with a view to making them mutually reinforcing.
6. 7
   • (1) Where there are persons available for and seeking work for whom work is not expected to be available in a reasonably short time, the government should examine and explain in a public statement how their needs will be met.
   • (2) Each Member should, to the fullest extent permitted by its available resources and level of economic development, adopt measures taking account of international standards in the field of social security and of Paragraph 5 of this Recommendation to help unemployed and underemployed persons during all periods of unemployment to meet their basic needs and those of their dependants and to adapt themselves to opportunities for further useful employment.

III. General and Selective Measures of Employment Policy

General Considerations

1. 8. Employment problems attributable to fluctuations in economic activity, to structural changes and especially to an inadequate level of activity should be dealt with by means of--
   • (a) general measures of economic policy; and
   • (b) selective measures directly connected with the employment of individual workers or categories of workers.
2. 9. The choice of appropriate measures and their timing should be based on careful study of the causes of unemployment with a view to distinguishing the different types.

General Measures: Long Term

1. 10. General economic measures should be designed to promote a continuously expanding economy possessing a reasonable degree of stability, which provides the best environment for the success of selective measures of employment policy.

General Measures: Short Term

1. 11.
   • (1) Measures of a short-term character should be planned and taken to prevent the emergence of general unemployment or underemployment associated with an inadequate level of economic activity, as well as to counterbalance inflationary pressure associated with a lack of balance in the employment market. At times when these conditions are present or threaten to appear, action should be taken to increase or, where appropriate, to reduce private consumption, private investment and/or government current or investment expenditure.
   • (2) In view of the importance of the timing of counter-measures, whether against recession, inflation or other imbalances, governments should, in accordance with national constitutional law, be vested with powers permitting such measures to be introduced or varied at short notice.

Selective Measures

1. 12. Measures should be planned and taken to even out seasonal fluctuations in employment. In particular, appropriate action should be taken to spread the demand for the products and services of workers in seasonal occupations more evenly throughout the year or to create complementary jobs for such workers.
2. 13
   • (1) Measures should be planned and taken to prevent the emergence and growth of unemployment or underemployment resulting from structural changes, and to promote and facilitate the adaptation of production and...