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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
It is proposed in this article to consider the Draft Conventions adopted by the International Labor Conference at its Nineteenth Session primarily with a view to illustrating the nature of the contribution which the Conference is making to international legislation and the manner in which problems which have some general bearing upon the development of international law and organization arise for consideration in connection with International Labor Conventions. It is unnecessary for this purpose to recapitulate the composition, powers, and procedure of the International Labor Conference, or to review that part of the activities of its Nineteenth Session which did not lead to the immediate adoption of Draft Conventions. It is therefore necessary to warn the reader that this article is not an attempt to give him a general impression of the Conference. It does not attempt to review the general discussions of social policy based upon the director's report. It does not describe the Unemployment (Young Persons) Recommendation, 1935, an important pronouncement which is one of the most valuable results of the Conference, but which, being a Recommendation, is intended “to be submitted to the Members for consideration with a view to effect being given to it by national legislation or otherwise,” and is therefore incapable of becoming by ratification the source of international obligations. This article, further, gives no account of the preliminary discussions which will probably lead to the adoption of Draft Conventions in future years; nor does it review the work of the Conference in supervising the application of existing Conventions. Its scope is limited strictly to a discussion of the five Draft Conventions actually adopted at the Nineteenth Session, i.e., the Forty-Hour Week Convention, 1935; the Reduction of Hours of Work (Glass-Bottle Works) Convention, 1935; the Maintenance of Migrants' Pension Rights Convention, 1935; the Underground Work (Women) Convention, 1935; and the Hours of Work (Coal Mines) Convention (Revised), 1935. Certain of these instruments raise far-reaching questions of economic and social policy; but discussion of such questions would not be appropriate in what is intended as a legal commentary.
1 The Nineteenth Session of the International Labor Conference was held in Geneva, June 4–June 25, 1935. Fifty-two of the 62 members of the Organization were represented, 32 of them by complete delegations including government, employers', and workers' representatives. The United States and the U.S.S.R. were represented as members of the Organization for the first time, the United States by a complete delegation, the U.S.S.R. by an observer. The Conventions and Recommendations adopted bring the totals of Conventions and Recommendations to 49 and 45, respectively. On September 1, 1935, 32 Conventions were in force, 44 members had ratified one or more Conventions, and 661 ratifications had been registered.
2 For such an impression, see “The Nineteenth Session of the International Labor Conference,” International Labour Review, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 290–343Google Scholar.
3 For which see (1) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Report III, Unemployment Among Young Persons, and (2) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Provisional Record, No. 2, pp. i–xxx; No. 6, pp. 35–62; No. 10, pp. i–xx; No. 25, pp. i–xli; No. 29, pp. 590–596; No. 30, pp. 598–607 and 614–631; No. 32, pp. 639–641 and i–ix; and No. 34, pp. 681–683.
4 Article 19 (1) of the constitution of the Organization. The constitution of the International Labor Organization formed Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles of June 28, 1919 (Articles 387–427), Part XIII of the Treaty of St. Germain of September 10, 1919 (Articles 332–372), Part XII of the Treaty of Neuilly of November 27, 1919 (Articles 249–289), and Part XIII of the Treaty of Trianon of June 4, 1920 (Articles 315–355). In view of the fact that different groupsof states are parties to these four treaties, and that the membership of the Organization now includes 28 states which were not parties to any of them, it has become the practice to refer to these provisions as the “constitution of the Organization,” and to adopt a uniform numbering of the articles running from 1–41. Upon this subject, see Phelan, E. J., “The United States and the International Labor Organization,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 50, No. 1, March, 1935, especially at pp. 107–112CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The constitution of the Organization is published by the International Labor Office in a booklet entitled The Constitution and Standing Orders of the International Labour Organization.
5 The texts of these Conventions are available in International Labor Office, Official Bulletin, Vol. 20, No. 3.
6 For the 1933 discussions, see (1) International Labor Conference, Seventeenth Session, Geneva, 1933, Report V, Reduction of Hours of Work, Report of the Tripartite Preparatory Conference, and (2) International Labor Conference, Seventeenth Session, Geneva, 1933, Record of Proceedings, at pp. 53–59, 61–64, 71–74, 76–121, 123–125, 339–406, 429–431, and 662–674. The minutes of the Conference Committee on the Reduction of Hours of Work are not published, but are available in the archives of the International Labor Office.
7 For the 1934 discussions, see (1) International Labor Conference, Eighteenth Session, Geneva, 1934, Report I, Reduction of Hours of Work, and (2) International Labor Conference, Eighteenth Session, Geneva, 1934, Record of Proceedings, at pp. 39–50, 53–87, 90–92, 330–339, 476–482, 489–501, 552–572, and 664. The minutes of the Conference Committee on the Reduction of Hours of Work are not published, but are available in the archives of the International Labor Office.
8 The objections and proposals of the Office were stated in International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Report VI, Reduction of Hours of Work, Vol. 1, Public Works Undertaken or Subsidized by Governments, at pp. 13–16.
9 For the discussions in the Conference leading to the adoption of the convention de principe, see International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Provisional Record, No. 6, pp, 62–71; No. 7, pp. 73–110; No. 8, pp. 112–134; No. 12, pp. 173–197; No. 13, pp. ii–iii; No. 14, pp. 216–234 and 253–254; No. 23, pp. vii–xxiii; No. 25, pp. 512–530 and pp. xlii–xliv; and No. 30, pp. 610–612. The minutes of the Conference Committee on the Reduction of Hours of Work are not published, but are available in the archives of the International Labor Office.
10 Provisional Record, No. 23, p. xiv.
11 For this Convention, see (1) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Report VI, Reduction of Hours of Work, Vol. 4, Glass Bottle Manufacture, and (2) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Provisional Record, No. 31, pp. iii–v, x–xii, and xxxi–xxxviii; No. 32, pp. ix–xii; No. 33, pp. 649–658; and No. 34, pp. 683-688. The minutes of the Committee on the Reduction of Hours of Work and Sub-Committee on Glass-Bottle Manufacture of the Nineteenth Session of the Conference are not published, but are available in the archives of the International Labor Office.
12 For this Convention, see (1) International Labor Conference, Seventeenth Session, Geneva, 1933, Methods of Providing Rest and Alternation of Shifts in Automatic Sheet-Glass Works; (2) International Labor Conference, Seventeenth Session, Geneva, 1933, Record of Proceedings, at pp. 136–146, 154–155, and 656–661; (3) International Labor Conference, Eighteenth Session, Geneva, 1934, Questionnaire III, Methods of Providing Rest and Alternation of Shifts in Automatic Sheet-Glass Works; (4) International Labor Conference, Eighteenth Session, Geneva, 1934, Report III, Methods of Providing Rest and Alternation of Shifts in Automatic Sheet-Glass Works; and (5) International Labor Conference, Eighteenth Session, Geneva, 1934, Record of Proceedings, at pp. 283–287, 402–404, 603–611, and 673–676. The minutes of the Committees on Glass Works of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Sessions of the Conference are not published, but are available in the archives of the International Labor Office.
13 For this Convention, see (1) International Labor Conference, Eighteenth Session, Geneva, 1934, Report IV, Maintenance of the Rights in Course of Acquisition and the Acquired Rights of Migrant Workers under Invalidity, Old-Age, and Widows' and Orphans' Insurance; (2) International Labor Conference, Eighteenth Session, Geneva, 1934, Record of Proceedings, at pp. 435–450 and 612–638; (3) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Questionnaire I, Maintenance of Rights in Course of Acquisition and of Acquired Rights under Invalidity, Old-Age, and Widows' and Orphans' Insurance on Behalf of Workers who Transfer their Residence from one Country to Another; (4) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Report I, Maintenance of Rights in Course of Acquisition and of Acquired Rights under Invalidity, Old-Age, and Widows' and Orphans' Insurance on Behalf of Workers who Transfer their Residence from one Country to Another; and (5) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Provisional Record, No. 21, pp. i–xxxi; No. 26, pp. 551–559; No. 27, pp. 561–571 and i–x; and No. 30, pp. 612–614. The minutes of the Maintenance of Pension Rights Committees of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Sessions of the Conference are not published, but are available in the archives of the International Labor Office.
14 Jenks, C. Wilfred, “Migrants' Pension Rights Convention, 1935,” Political Science Quarterly, June, 1936Google Scholar.
15 For this Convention, see (1) International Labor Conference, Eighteenth Session, Geneva, 1934, Report VI, Employment of Women on Underground Work in Mines of all Kinds; (2) International Labor Conference, Eighteenth Session, Geneva, 1934, Record of Proceedings, at pp. 289–295 and 647–649; (3) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Questionnaire II, Employment of Women on Underground Work in Mines of all Kinds; (4) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Report II, Employment of Women on Underground Work in Mines of all Kinds; (5) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Provisional Record, No. 11, pp. xi–xix; No. 19, pp. 373–379 and xii–xv; and No. 27, pp. 576–579. The minutes of the Underground Work Committee of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Sessions of the Conference are not published, but are available in the archives of the International Labor Office.
16 Some Conventions, notably (1) the Hours of Work (Industry) Convention' 1919, Article 2, and five Conventions the scope provisions of which are modelled thereupon, and (2) the Minimum Age (Sea) Convention, 1920, and five Conventions which define “vessel” in the same manner as the Minimum Age (Sea) Convention, specify that they apply to persons employed in public undertakings or on public vessels. Some Conventions, e.g., the Unemployment Provision Convention, 1935, Article 2 (2) (c), implicitly include such persons generally by excluding them in specified cases. In other Conventions, e.g., the White Lead (Painting) Convention, 1921, the Night Work (Bakeries) Convention, 1925, the Sickness Insurance (Industry, etc., and agriculture) Conventions, 1927, the Minimum Age (Non-Industrial Employment) Convention, 1932, the Pension Insurance Conventions, 1933, the Sheet-Glass Works Convention, 1934, the Reduction of Hours of Work (Glass-Bottle Works) Convention, 1935, and the Hours of Work (Coal Mines) Convention (Revised), 1935, there is no express provision, but the scope of the Convention is stated in perfectly general language.
17 On the relevance of municipal rules of interpretation for the interpretation of International Labor Conventions, see P.C.I.J., Series C, Pleadings, Oral Statements and Documents, No. 60, “Interpretation of the Convention Concerning Employment of Women During the Night,” Mèmoire du Bureau International du Travail, at pp. 172–173Google Scholar, and statement by Mr. Phelan at pp. 209–210.
18 See Committee Report, International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Provisional Record, No. 11, at p. xiii.
19 For the 1931 Convention, see (1) International Labor Conference, Fourteenth Session, Geneva, 1930, Report III, Hours of Work in Coal Mines, with supplement thereto; (2) International Labor Conference, Fourteenth Session, Geneva, 1930, Final Record, Vol. 1, at pp. 341–401, 485–498, and 809–849Google Scholar; (3) International Labor Conference, Fifteenth Session, Geneva, 1931, Questionnaire II, Hours of Work in Coal Mines; (4) International Labor Conference, Fifteenth Session, Geneva, 1931, Report II, Hours of Work in Coal Mines; (5) International Labor Conference, Fifteenth Session, Geneva, 1931, Final Record, Vol. 1, at pp. 367–432, 479–483, 666–717, and 748–757Google Scholar. The minutes of the Hours of Work in Coal Mines Committees of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Sessions of the Conference are not published, but are available in the archives of the International Labor Office.
20 For the revised Convention, see (1) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Report VII, Partial Revision of the Hours of Work (Coal Mines) Convention, 1931, and (2) International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Provisional Record, No. 18, pp. iii–xv; No. 22, pp. 454–462; No. 23, pp. xxiv–xxxii; and No. 27, pp. 579–581. The minutes of the Committee on the Partial Revision of the 1931 Convention of the Nineteenth Session of the Conference are not published, but are available in the archives of the International Labor Office.
21 See Mr. Hamilton's speech in International Labor Conference, Nineteenth Session, Geneva, 1935, Provisional Record, No. 32, at pp. 638–639.
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