ILO Convention No.
144
Tripartite Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976
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 Sixty-first Session on 2 June 1976, and
Recalling the terms of existing international labour Conventions and
Recommendations--in particular the Freedom of Association and Protection of
the Right to Organise Convention, 1948, the Right to Organise and Collective
Bargaining Convention, 1949, and the Consultation (Industrial and National
Levels) Recommendation, 1960--which affirm the right of employers and workers
to establish free and independent organisations and call for measures to promote
effective consultation at the national level between public authorities and
employers' and workers' organisations, as well as the provisions of numerous
international labour Conventions and Recommendations which provide for the
consultation of employers' and workers' organisations on measures to give effect
thereto, and
Having considered the fourth item on the agenda of the session which is entitled
"Establishment of tripartite machinery to promote the implementation of
international labour standards", and having decided upon the adoption of certain
proposals concerning tripartite consultation to promote the implementation of
international labour standards, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an international
Convention,
adopts this twenty-first day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and
seventy-six the following Convention, which may be cited as the Tripartite
Consultation (International Labour Standards) Convention, 1976:
Article 1
1. In this Convention the term representative organisations means
the most representative organisations of employers and workers enjoying the
right of freedom of association.
Article 2
2. (1) Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which
ratifies this Convention undertakes to operate procedures which ensure effective
consultations, with respect to the matters concerning the activities of the
International Labour Organisation set out in Article 5, paragraph 1, below,
between representatives of the government, of employers and of workers.
2. (2) The nature and form of the procedures provided for in paragraph 1
of this Article shall be determined in each country in accordance with national
practice, after consultation with the representative organisations, where such
organisations exist and such procedures have not yet been established.
Article 3
3. (1) The representatives of employers and workers for the purposes of
the procedures provided for in this Convention shall be freely chosen by their
representative organisations, where such organisations exist.
3. (2) Employers and workers shall be represented on an equal footing on
any bodies through which consultations are undertaken.
Article 4
4. (1) The competent authority shall assume responsibility for the
administrative support of the procedures provided for in this Convention.
4. (2) Appropriate arrangements shall be made between the competent
authority and the representative organisations, where such organisations exist,
for the financing of any necessary training of participants in these procedures.
Article 5
5. (1) The purpose of the procedures provided for in this Convention shall
be consultations on--
(a) government replies to questionnaires concerning items on the agenda
of the International Labour Conference and government comments on
proposed texts to be discussed by the Conference;
(b) the proposals to be made to the competent authority or authorities in
connection with the submission of Conventions and Recommendations
pursuant to article 19 of the Constitution of the International Labour
Organisation;
(c) the re-examination at appropriate intervals of unratified Conventions
and of Recommendations to which effect has not yet been given, to
consider what measures might be taken to promote their implementation
and ratification as appropriate;
(d) questions arising out of reports to be made to the International Labour
Office under Article 22 of the Constitution of the International Labour
Organisation;
(e) proposals for the denunciation of ratified Conventions.
5. (2) In order to ensure adequate consideration of the matters referred to
in paragraph 1 of this Article, consultation shall be undertaken at appropriate
intervals fixed by agreement, but at least once a year.
Article 6
6. When this is considered appropriate after consultation with the
representative organisations, where such organisations exist, the competent
authority shall issue an annual report on the working of the procedures provided
for in this Convention.
Article 7
7. The formal ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated
to the Director-General of the International Labour Office for registration.
Article 8
8. (1) This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the
International Labour Organisation whose ratifications have been registered with
the Director-General.
8. (2) It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the
ratifications of two Members have been registered with the Director-General.
8. (3) Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member
twelve months after the date on which its ratification has been registered.
Article 9
9. (1) A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after
the expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes into
force, by an act communicated to the Director-General of the International
Labour Office for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until one
year after the date on which it is registered.
9. (2) Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does
not, within the year following the expiration of the period of ten years mentioned
in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for in this
Article, will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter, may
denounce this Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years under the
terms provided for in this Article.
Article 10
10. (1) The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall notify
all Members of the International Labour Organisation of the registration of all
ratifications and denunciations communicated to him by the Members of the
Organisation.
10. (2) When notifying the Members of the Organisation of the registration
of the second ratification communicated to him, the Director-General shall draw
the attention of the Members of the Organisation to the date upon which the
Convention will come into force.
Article 11
11. The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall
communicate to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for registration in
accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations full particulars of
all ratifications and acts of denunciation registered by him in accordance with the
provisions of the preceding Articles.
Article 12
12. At such times as it may consider necessary the Governing Body of
the International Labour Office shall present to the General Conference a report
on the working of this Convention and shall examine the desirability of placing on
the agenda of the Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.
Article 13
13. (1) Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this
Convention in whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise
provides:
a) the ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention shall ipso
jure involve the immediate denunciation of this Convention,
notwithstanding the provisions of Article 9 above, if and when the new
revising Convention shall have come into force;
b) as from the date when the new revising Convention comes into force
this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification by the Members.
13. (2) This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual form
and content for those Members which have ratified it but have not ratified the
revising Convention.
Article 14
14. The English and French versions of the text of this Convention are
equally authoritative.
