THE LABOUR CONVENTION

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10276, 10 May 1919, Page 7

THE LABOUR CONVENTION

SECTION XIII

Under the provisions .of the Labour Convention:

(1) An International Conference is to be held annually to propose Labour reforms for adoption by the states composing the League of Nations. (2; There is to bo a governing body, to act as an executive and prepare the agenda for the Conference, and an International Labour Office for this collection and distribution of information and reports. The head of this office will be responsible to the governing body.

(3) The annual Conference wiR consist of four representatives from each State, two for the State, and one each for the employers and the employed. Each delegate may vote independently. The Conference will have power to adopt, by a two-thirds majority, recommendations, or draft convention* on Labour matters. Recommendations or draft conventions, so adopted, must bo brought by each State before the authority or authorities, within whose competence the matter lies, for enactment, for legislation, or for other action. If a draft convention receives the approval of the competent authority, the State in question is under an obligation- to ratify it, and carry it into effect. Should any State fail to observe the above obligations, it shall be open to the governing body to appoint a Commission of Inquiry, as a result of whose findings the League of Nations may take economic measures against the offending State. (4) Special provision is made to prevent any conflict with the Constitution of the United States or other Federal States.

(5) . To meet the case of countries where the climate, imperfect industrial development, or other special circumstances render labour conditions substantially different from those obtaining elsewhere, the Conference must take the difference into account in framing any Convention. A protocol attached to the Convention provides that the first meeting shall be at Washington in the present year, and sets up an International Organisation Committee for tfrat purpose. The protocol also contains the agenda for the first meeting, "which include the principle of an eight-hours’ day, the question, of unemployment, and tho employment of women and children, especially in dangerous trades. Appended to tho section containing the Labour Convention is an affirmation by the high contracting parties of tho methods and principles for regulating labour conditions, which all industrial communities should endeavour to apply, so far as thoir special circumstances permit. Amongst these are: That labour should not bo regarded meuely as a commodity or article of commerce; the right of association, for all lawful purposes, for employer as wqdl as for

-employed; the payment to tho employed of a wage implying a reasonable irtandard of life, as understood in their lame, and country; the adoption of an ■eight-hours’ day, or a 4S-hours’ week, where this has” not already been attained , the adoption of a weekly rest of at least 24 hours, including Sunday, where practicable; the abolition of child labour, and the limitation of labour of the young, so as to permit of tho continuance of their education, and their proper" physical development; the principle of equal pay for men and women for equal work; any legal standard for conditions of labour to have regard, in each country, to the equitable economic treatment of all workers resident therein; and the provision by each State of a system of inspection for the protection o 1 the employed, in which women should take part. ,