GB.343/LILS/1/Decision

Decision concerning the report of the sixth meeting of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group (Geneva, 13–18 September 2021)

Record of decisions | 03 November 2021
The Governing Body took note of the report of the Officers concerning the sixth meeting of the Standards Review Mechanism Tripartite Working Group (SRM TWG) and, in approving its recommendations:

(a) thanked the SRM TWG for undertaking its review of the instruments in question and regretted that it was not able to reach consensual recommendations on the review of all the instruments on the agenda at its sixth meeting;

(b) decided that the instruments concerning social security that were reviewed by the SRM TWG should be considered to have the classifications it had recommended;

(c) called upon the Organization and its tripartite constituents to take concerted steps to follow up on all its recommendations as organized by the SRM TWG into practical and time-bound packages of follow-up action, noting in particular plans of action encouraging States party to the Sickness Insurance (Industry) Convention, 1927 (No. 24) and the Sickness Insurance (Agriculture) Convention, 1927 (No. 25) to ratify related up-to-date Conventions;

(d) requested the Office to take the necessary follow-up to the recommendations of the SRM TWG at this and previous meetings as a matter of institutional priority;

(e) noted that certain follow-up required actions by the Governing Body to be discussed at the earliest possible session in relation to:

(i) the SRM TWG’s recommendations concerning the abrogation and withdrawal of certain instruments, it will consider placing on the agenda of the 118th Session (2030) of the International Labour Conference an item concerning the abrogation of the Conventions Nos 24 and 25 and the withdrawal of the Sickness Insurance Recommendation, 1927 (No. 29); and

(ii) the SRM TWG’s recommendation that Office work on the application of social security to agricultural workers should be carried out in the context of the forthcoming Plan of action on social protection (social security) to follow-up on the 2021 Conference conclusions on the recurrent discussion;

(f) requested the Office to prepare a background paper providing information on the implications of gendered language used in certain provisions of ILO social security standards, and in particular of the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102), to be placed on the agenda of the Governing Body for discussion at the earliest possible date with a view to deciding on appropriate follow-up actions;

(g) decided to convene the seventh meeting of the SRM TWG from 12 to 16 September 2022, at which it should review the one instrument concerning employment injury and examine the follow-up to the six outdated instruments in that topic within set of instruments five of the initial programme of work, and discuss certain matters of standards policy; and

(h) decided that the cost of the SRM TWG estimated to cost up to US$957,500 would be financed in the first instance from savings that might arise under Part I of the budget for 2022–23 or, failing that, through the use of the provision for unforeseen expenditure, in Part II. Should that not prove possible, the Director-General would propose alternative methods of financing at a later stage in the biennium.


(GB.343/LILS/1, paragraph 6)