R023 - Workmen's Compensation (Jurisdiction) Recommendation, 1925

 Adoption: Geneva, 7th ILC session (10 Jun 1925)

Preamble

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 Seventh Session on 19 May 1925, and

Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to jurisdiction in disputes on workmen's compensation, which is included in the first item of the agenda of the Session, and

Having determined that these proposals should take the form of a Recommendation,

adopts this tenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred twenty-five, the following Recommendation, which may be cited as the Workmen's Compensation (Jurisdiction) Recommendation, 1925, to be submitted to the Members of the International Labour Organisation for consideration with a view to effect being given to it by national legislation or otherwise, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation:

Whereas disputes on workmen's compensation turn not only on the interpretation of laws and regulations, but also on questions of an occupational character requiring a thorough knowledge of working conditions, for example, questions as to the nature of the undertaking, the kind of risk inherent in it, the relation between the workman's employment and the accident, the method of computing earnings, the degree of incapacity for work, the possibility of the workman's adapting himself to some other occupation,

And whereas workmen and employers have the necessary knowledge and experience on these questions, and disputes on compensation matters might be more equitably settled if they were members of or associated with the courts which have to decide such disputes,

And whereas it is possible in many countries to secure the association of employers and workmen with such courts, as members or otherwise, without departing radically from the existing judicial system,

The General Conference recommends that each Member of the International Labour Organisation should take the following principles and rules into consideration:

I

That every dispute relating to workmen's compensation should preferably be dealt with by a special court or board of arbitration comprising, with or without the addition of regular judges, an equal number of employers' and workmen's representatives appointed to act as adjudicators by their respective organisations or on the nomination of such organisations or comprising employers' and workmen's representatives drawn from other social institutions or elected by separate electoral bodies of employers and workmen.

II

That, where disputes relating to workmen's compensation are dealt with by the ordinary courts of law, such courts shall be required, on the request of either of the parties concerned, to hear employers' and workmen's representatives as experts in any case where the dispute involves a question of an occupational character, and in particular the question of the degree of incapacity for work.