Submission to the Competent National Authorities

One of the most fundamental obligations imposed on governments by the ILO Constitution is that of "submission to the competent national authority".

Further details concerning the procedure

The obligation

Within 12 or in exceptional cases 18 months of adoption, the government must submit both Conventions and Recommendations "to the authority or authorities within whose competence the matter lies, for the enactment of legislation or other action". They must also report back to the ILO on the measures they have taken in that respect and on the action taken by the competent authority or authorities. Since the implementation of a Convention or Recommendation normally requires legislation, the competent authority will in most cases be the national parliament, legislative assembly or congress: it is for that body to decide whether the action of the International Labour Conference should be followed up at national level, by translating the international standards into national legislation.

Federal states

The position is more complicated in federal States since, under a federal constitution, the central government may not be entitled to make laws on the subject covered by a particular Convention or Recommendation, that being a power of the different constituent states, provinces or cantons that together make up the federal State. In such cases the ILO Constitution also lays down the procedure to be followed. The central government is required to make arrangements for the text to be referred to the legislatures of the constituent units of the federation within 18 months and to report to the Director-General of the ILO on the steps taken and on the results achieved. Where a nation is a federation of many different states, each with substantial power to make its own laws, this can be a long and complicated process. It gets even more complicated if parts of the Convention or Recommendation are a federal responsibility and other parts fall within the competence of the individual states.

Action to be taken

When a government places a Convention or Recommendation before the competent legislative authority, it is expected to indicate what action it considers desirable. It may indicate that the instrument is already fully applied in national law and practice and can therefore be ratified or accepted; it may recommend the enactment of legislation to give full effect to the instrument followed -- in the case of a Convention -- by ratification; it may recommend that the question of ratification of a Convention should be deferred in order to allow time for the carrying out of consultations or studies on the matter; or it may recommend that a Convention should not be ratified.

Reporting back to the ILO

Once the submission procedure has been completed, and the steps taken have been communicated to the International Labour Office, the government's immediate obligations arising from the adoption of a new instrument by the Conference are fulfilled. The report to the Office on the action taken is regarded as an important part of the overall procedure, since it is this report that enables the ILO and its supervisory bodies to ensure that the obligation to submit new instruments to the competent authorities is respected. The points on which a government is expected to report are clearly stated in a memorandum concerning submission to the competent authorities which has been adopted by the Governing Body of the ILO. Among other things, the government should indicate which employers' and workers' organisations have been given copies of its report to the ILO.

Details of the memorandum

The intent

There is a very clear distinction between submission to the competent authorities and the act of ratification. Sometimes governments ask: "Why should we be obliged to submit to our competent authorities Conventions which we do not intend to ratify?" The answer lies in the intention of the procedure. The procedure does not imply any obligation to propose that a Convention be ratified or a Recommendation accepted: governments are free to make whatever proposals they wish in this regard. The point is that regardless of whether or not the submission to the legislative body of an ILO Convention is accompanied by a proposal to ratify, the act of submission is intended to serve the purpose of bringing the contents of international labour standards to the knowledge of the public. It can thus create an awareness, on important labour and social matters, of the opinion of what is after all a world parliament of governments, employers and workers, i.e. the International Labour Conference; it can stimulate public debate on these matters; it enables employers and workers at the national level to become involved in this process and to have an influence on the ratification of Conventions and the acceptance of Recommendations; and even if it does not lead to concrete legislative action it can none the less have a sizeable effect on national attitudes and policies.