[Withdrawn instrument - By decision of the International Labour Conference at its 90th Session (2002)]
The Conference,
Recalling that it has on several occasions drawn the attention of Governments to the economic measures that should be adopted as a remedy for the general depression, as a result of which large numbers of workers are unemployed;
Considering that this unemployment continues and affects a large number of young persons, whose involuntary idleness may undermine their characters, diminish their occupational skill, and menace the future development of the nations;
Considering that the Conference at its Eighteenth Session adopted a Convention and Recommendation concerning unemployment insurance and various forms of relief for the unemployed which apply to young persons among others;
Considering that many countries have adopted other measures to remedy a situation the gravity of which has rightly alarmed public opinion;
Recommends, in the light of the experience already gained in this field, that each Member should apply the following principles and should submit to the International Labour Office a report stating the extent to which, and manner in which, the said principles have been applied:
School-Leaving Age; Age for Admission to Employment; General and Vocational Education
1. The minimum age for leaving school and being admitted to employment should be fixed at not less than fifteen years, as soon as circumstances permit. - 2.
- (1) Juveniles over the school-leaving age who are unable to find suitable employment should, where the organisation of the school allows, be required to continue full-time attendance at school until suitable employment is available for them.
- (2) For the purpose of this Paragraph the term suitable refers primarily to the continuity of the employment and to future prospects therein. (3) For the purpose of applying this Paragraph there should be close co-operation between the education, placing and unemployment insurance authorities.
3. For the purpose of this Recommendation, juvenile means a person under eighteen years of age. 4. In countries where compulsory education does not yet exist, it should be introduced as soon as possible in conformity with Paragraphs 1 and 2. 5. Maintenance allowances should, if necessary, be granted to parents by the competent public authorities during the additional periods of education recommended in Paragraphs 1 and 2. 6. The curricula for juveniles whose period of school attendance is prolonged by the application of the measures recommended above should be designed primarily to promote their general education, but should also provide general training for occupational activity. - 7.
- (1) Measures should be adopted to encourage juveniles with the necessary aptitudes to attend secondary or technical schools beyond the minimum school-leaving age.
- (2) Exemption from the payment of fees or the reduction of fees would be suitable methods of applying this principle.
8. Juveniles who are no longer in full-time attendance at school should, until they reach the age of eighteen, be required to attend continuation courses providing a combination of general and vocational education. - 9.
- (1) Where such attendance is not compulsory for all juveniles it should at least be made compulsory for unemployed juveniles, who should be required to attend for a prescribed number of hours every day or, where this is not possible, for a prescribed number of hours every week.
- (2) In districts in which there is a sufficient number of unemployed juveniles special courses should be organised for them.
- (3) Measures should be taken to enable juveniles who have attended courses organised in accordance with the two preceding subparagraphs to continue similar instruction if possible after having found work.
10. Any unemployed juvenile unable to show good cause for his having refused to attend the course which he is required to attend in application of Paragraph 9 may, under suitable circumstances, be temporarily disqualified, entirely or partly, for the receipt of unemployment benefit and allowances. - 11.
- (1) There should be organised for unemployed persons between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five vocational training centres in which some provision is made for general education. Whether these centres are residential or non-residential should be decided according to circumstances.
- (2) These centres should be organised in co-operation with employers' and workers' organisations.
- 12.
- (1) The programmes of such centres should include, in addition to practical subjects, general courses of vocational and cultural interest.
- (2) The persons responsible for giving the courses at such centres should be suitably remunerated and should be selected with special care, as far as possible from among qualified unemployed young persons.
13. Persons attending a course or centre organised in application of Paragraph 9 or 11 should be allowed supplementary grants to cover their travelling and other necessary expenses. - 14. In the case of persons unable to secure employment on the termination of secondary, technical or higher studies measures should be taken--
- (a) to enable such persons to supplement their theoretical training by obtaining practical experience in industrial, commercial and other undertakings and in public administration, every precaution being taken to prevent such persons displacing regular workers;
- (b) to facilitate, by such methods as the provision of free courses and of study and research scholarships, their continued attendance at the institution where they terminated their technical or higher studies or at some other institution of general or vocational education;
- (c) to give such persons information concerning overcrowded occupations and to assist them to counteract prejudices which constitute barriers to their occupational readjustment.
15. Special measures should be adopted to train a qualified staff for educational, recreational, social service and employment centres for the young unemployed. It would be appropriate for such training to be given in special centres to which unemployed young persons with the necessary qualifications are admitted.
Recreational and Social Services for the Young Unemployed
- 16.
- (1) Measures for promoting the general and vocational education of the young unemployed should be accompanied by measures to facilitate the useful and agreeable utilisation of their spare time, such as the establishment of recreational centres, physical training centres, reading rooms, etc.
- (2) Such centres should not be reserved for the exclusive use of the unemployed but should also, with a view to avoiding any systematic separation of employed and unemployed, be open to young employed persons.
- (3) Such centres should be under the supervision of a qualified person, but their activities should be arranged as far as possible by co-operation with and among the young persons themselves.
17. In districts where there is a sufficient number of young unemployed, measures should be taken to establish social service centres and hostels where they can obtain board and lodging at low cost.
Action by Trade Organisations and Private Organisations
18. The public authorities should assist educational and other social services for the young unemployed organised by trade organisations and other associations.
Special Employement Centres
19. Where it is considered desirable to establish, for unemployed persons between the ages of eighteen and twenty-four inclusive, employment centres, the principal object of which is not to give vocational training but to provide work under other than normal conditions of employment, adequate safeguards should be adopted to prevent these abnormal conditions resulting in abuses. 20. Attendance at employment centres should be strictly voluntary. 21. Every care should be taken to prevent centres, whether public or private, from becoming institutions for military training. Privately organised centres should be under the supervision of public civil authorities. 22. No person should be admitted to an employment centre unless he has been medically examined and found physically fit for the work proposed for him. 23. The strictest hygienic conditions should prevail in all centres. 24. Special attention should be devoted to living conditions and discipline. The organisation of the centres should as far as possible be such as to enable the young unemployed to govern themselves, particularly as regards discipline. 25. In order to enable the young persons to maintain regular contact with their families, centres should be as near to their homes as circumstances permit. - 26.
- (1) The work programmes of the centres should be such as to avoid competition by the centres with workers in normal employment.
- (2) In so far as possible, the work provided should be appropriate to the age, sex, strength and occupation of the persons concerned.
27. The remuneration of young persons employed at centres should include a cash payment, in addition to board and, where these are provided, working clothes and lodging. 28. Persons employed at centres should be admitted to social insurance schemes and the contributions due in respect of them should be payable by the centres. 29. Where there is no general scheme of compulsory accident compensation insurance, centres should, unless directly organised by public authorites, which act as their own insurance carriers, cover their compensation liability by insurance. - 30.
- (1) With a view to the inclusion in the programmes of centres of adequate provision for general education, vocational training, games, sports and free time, the time spent on productive work should be considerably less than forty hours per week.
- (2) Centres should have libraries.
- 31.
- (1) There should be detailed regulations for the training and selection of the staff of centres, and members of centre staffs should have a thorough knowledge of social questions generally and of the problems of youth in particular.
- (2) The staff of centres specially organised for young women should consist chiefly of women.
- (3) Intermediate posts should in all possible cases be reserved for persons in attendance at the centres who are found to be suitably qualified.
- (4) These centres should be placed under the supervision of a qualified person, but their activities should as far as possible be regulated by co-operation with and among the young persons themselves.
- 32.
- (1) A central supervisory council should be instituted for the purpose of general supervision over the employment centre system.
- (2) The central supervisory council should include representatives of the most representative organisations of workers and employers and of the public department responsible for placing, public works, agriculture, public health, safety, education and for other aspects of the welfare of the young.
- (3) Among these representatives there should be a certain number of women.
33. The central supervisory council or some other appropriate body should collaborate closely with the public employment exchanges with a view to placing in normal employment the persons attending the centres. 34. Measures should be taken to develop team spirit among the persons attending the centres and to encourage them to form co-operative working groups for employment on land settlement schemes, public works, handicrafts, etc.
Special Public Works for Unemployed Young Persons
- 35.
- (1) Special public works should be organised to assist unemployed young persons and such works should as far as possible be adapted to the age and occupation of such persons.
- (2) For young unemployed persons who have terminated secondary, technical or higher studies, such works should be adapted as far as possible to the training of such persons.
- (3) In so far as they are appropriate and possible, the safeguards recommended for Special Employment Centres should also be applied to public works organised to assist unemployed young persons.
Placing and Development of Opportunities for Normal Employment
36. The national system of public employment exchanges should include special local and central arrangements for the placing of juveniles. - 37. Placing services for juveniles--
- (a) should seek to place juveniles in suitable occupations as defined in Paragraph 2 (2); and
- (b) should either include a vocational guidance department or be co-ordinated with independent bodies for vocational guidance.
38. Employers should be required to notify the local placing service for juveniles of vacancies for juveniles and of any engagements of juveniles which they have made without recourse to the placing service. - 39. Placing services for juveniles should be required--
- (a) to supervise, in co-operation with vocational guidance services, apprenticeship committees and similar bodies, the results of the placings made, with a view to obtaining information likely to further the occupational prospects of juveniles; and
- (b) to maintain close relations with all other public and private institutions interested in young persons and notably with the education authorities.
40. In the development of placing services for young persons of eighteen years of age and over, provision should be made whenever possible for assisting such persons in their occupational readjustment. 41. Measures should be taken to transfer to expanding occupations and to districts in which such occupations are carried on young persons who are without employment in districts where the principal industries appear to be in permanent decline. 42. Governments should conclude agreements for the purpose of facilitating the international exchange of student employees, that is to say, of young persons desirous of improving their occupational qualfications by a knowledge of the customs of other countries. 43. Present attempts to promote re-employment by a reduction in ordinary hours of work should be pursued with special vigour in respect of employment in which young persons engage.
Statistics
- 44.
- (1) Unemployment insurance institutions, public employment exchanges, and other institutions which compile unemployment statistics should include in their statistics figures showing the extent of unemployment among persons below the age of twenty-five.
- (2) These figures should be classified so as to show the distribution of such unemployment according to--
- (a) sex;
- (b) age, juveniles and other young persons being classified separately;
- (c) occupation, persons who have never been in paid employment being classified separately and according to the occupation for which they have been trained or in which they have applied for employment.
45. For the purpose of supplementing such statistics, and in substitution for them where they do not exist, special enquiries should be made from time to time with a view to obtaining the above information and complementary information upon such matters as the length of unemployment and occupational history of the persons concerned. 46. Where the general census returns include information concerning unemployment, the returns should be analysed for the purpose of obtaining in so far as possible the information referred to in Paragraph 44. 47. Until such time as the recommendation made in Paragraph 1 is fully applied in the various countries, annual returns should be compiled showing the number of children still under the school-leaving age who during the year have been engaged in employment out of school hours. Such returns should be classified by sex, age group and occupation, and should give details of the days of the week and the seasons during which such employment was carried on, and the number and incidence of the hours of employment.
