International regulation of wages

Remuneration is, together with working time, the aspect of working conditions that has the most direct and most tangible impact on the day-to-day lives of workers. Since its earliest days, the International Labour Organization has placed the questions of decent wage levels and fair labour remuneration practices at the center of its action and has advocated labour standards seeking to guarantee and protect the rights of workers in respect of wages. The Constitution of the Organization, originally established in 1919 as Part XIII of the Peace Treaty of Versailles, referred to the “provision of an adequate living wage” as one of the improvements urgently required to promote universal peace and combat the social unrest, hardship and privation affecting large numbers of people. It listed among the methods and principles which were considered to be well-fitted to guiding the policy of member States “the payment to the employed of a wage adequate to maintain a reasonable standard of life as this is understood in their time and country”. The 1944 Declaration of Philadelphia concerning the aims and purposes of the Organization reaffirms that “poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere” and emphasizes the need for world programs which will achieve “policies in regard to wages and earnings, hours and other conditions of work calculated to ensure a just share of the fruits of progress to all and a minimum living wage to all employed and in need of such protection”

Contrary to the problem of minimum wage regulation, which attracted the attention of the International Labour Conference much earlier, and resulted in the adoption of the Minimum Wage-Fixing Machinery Convention (No. 26)in 1928, the question of adopting standards designed to regulate the medium of wage payment, as well as such other aspects as wage deductions, the attachment of wages and wage guarantees in case of bankruptcy, was only brought before the Conference some 30 years after the Organization had come into being. Until then, the Conference had given only incidental consideration to the problems of the protection of wages through the adoption of a number of resolutions, as well as some provisions in Conventions and Recommendations. At its 19th Session in 1935, for instance, the Conference adopted a resolution inviting the Office to undertake an inquiry into the “truck system”, i.e. the obligation to spend wages on goods supplied by employers and related practices, but the inquiry was later suspended because of the outbreak of the Second World War. At its 25th Session in 1939, the Conference included in the Contracts of Employment (Indigenous Workers) Convention, 1939 (No. 64), certain provisions relating to the question of the protection of wages, in the form of a requirement that contracts of employment are to contain particulars concerning, inter alia, the rate of wages, the method of wage calculation, the manner and periodicity of wage payments, and advances of wages. Finally, the Social Policy (Non-Metropolitan Territories) Convention (No. 82), adopted at the 30th Session of the Conference in 1947,contains specific provisions on workers’ remuneration and, in particular, provisions on the payment of wages in legal tender and at regular intervals, wage deductions, record-keeping and wage statements, payments in kind, the place of wage payment and advances on wages. These principles had been for the most part enunciated in the Social Policy in Dependent Territories Recommendation (No. 70) adopted in 1944 by the 26th Session of the Conference, and in the Social Policy in Dependent Territories (Supplementary Provisions) Recommendation (No. 74), adopted in 1945 at the 27th Session of the Conference.

The idea of the possible adoption of an international instrument specifically addressing the problems of the protection of wages was first put forward in a report on the “Future policy, program and status of the International Labour Organisation”, prepared by the Office for the 26th Session of the Conference in 1944. While emphasizing that “wage policy lies at the core of the preoccupations of the International Labour Organisation”, the report suggested that “a Convention or Recommendation on methods of wage payment dealing with the periodicity of wage payments, deductions from wages, advances of wages, the prohibition of truck, the adequacy of remuneration in kind, the protection of wages in legal proceedings and similar subjects would also be of great value in relation to many parts of the world, especially in regard to rural workers”.

The Governing Body decided at its 101st Session (March 1947) to place on the agenda of the 31st Session of the International Labour Conference three wage-related items, i.e. the protection of wages, the fair wages clause in public contracts and the general subject of the regulation of wages and wages policy. While the first two items were placed on the agenda under the usual double-discussion procedure with a view to adopting new standard-setting instruments, the third item was only included for the purpose of a general discussion to enable the Conference to consider all aspects of wages policy and formulate a program for future action in this field.

In the event, after two Conference discussions and often lively debate, especially regarding issues such as the prohibition of the payment of wages in the form of alcoholic drinks and the conditions of operation of works stores, the Convention and the Recommendation concerning the protection of wages were adopted. Convention No. 95 and Recommendation No. 85 are the first two international labour instruments dealing in a comprehensive manner with aspects such as the form and manner of the payment of wages and seeking to accord the fullest possible protection to workers’ remuneration.

In the years following the adoption of the Convention, provisions with direct relevance to the protection of wages were included in several other ILO instruments. For instance, the Plantations Convention, 1958 (No. 110), contains a special part on wages which reproduces textually certain provisions of Convention No. 95, such as Article 3, paragraph 1, on the prohibition of the payment of wages in the form of promissory notes, vouchers or coupons, Article 5 on the direct payment of wages to the worker concerned, Article 6 on the freedom of workers to dispose of their wages, Article 7 on works stores, Article 8 on wage deductions, Article 9 on the prohibition of any deduction or indirect payment for the purpose of retaining employment, Article 12 on the regular payment of wages, Article 14 on the notification of wage conditions to workers and Article 15 on enforcement measures. Similarly, the provisions of the Social Policy (Basic Aims and Standards) Convention, 1962 (No. 117),which refer to the remuneration of workers draw heavily on the principles set out in Convention No. 95, such as the payment of wages in legal tender only, the prohibition of the substitution of alcohol or other spirituous beverages for all or any part of wages, the obligation to pay wages directly to the individual worker and at regular intervals, the need to ensure when food, housing or clothing form part of remuneration that such supplies are adequate and their cash value is properly assessed, the requirement to keep workers informed of their wage rights and also the need to prevent unauthorized deductions.

Mention should also be made of the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised) (No. 97) and Recommendation (Revised) (No. 86), 1949,which deal in part with matters related to the remuneration of migrant workers, including the principle of non-discrimination and equal treatment of migrant workers in respect of remuneration, which encompasses family allowances, overtime and holidays with pay (Article 6, paragraph 1(a)(i)), the free transfer of their earnings (Article 9 of the Convention and Paragraph 10(c) and (d) of the Recommendation) and the insertion of provisions indicating the wage conditions into the contract of employment (Annex II, Article 6, paragraph 1(b)). The Minimum Wage Fixing Machinery (Agriculture) Convention, 1951 (No. 99),also contains a provision regulating the partial payment of minimum wages in the form of allowances in kind in terms that are practically identical to those used in Article 4 of Convention No. 95. Moreover, the Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100), includes a definition of the term “remuneration” which is similar to the definition of the term “wages” contained in Article 1 of Convention No. 95.

Finally, reference should be made to the Protection of Workers’ Claims (Employer’s Insolvency) Convention, 1992 (No. 173), which partially revises Convention No. 95 with regard to the preferential treatment of workers’ wage claims in the event of the bankruptcy or judicial liquidation of an enterprise. Under Article 3, paragraph 6, of Convention No. 173, acceptance by a member State of the obligations of Part II of the Convention dealing with the protection of workers’ claims by means of a privilege ipso jure terminates its obligations under Article 11 of Convention No. 95.

SEMINAR PROGRAM

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1023