INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE
STUDIES AND R E P O R T S
Series M (Social Insurance) No. 12
THE INTERNATIONAL
LABOUR ORGANISATION
AND
SOCIAL INSURANCE
GENEVA
1936
Published in the United Kingdom
For the INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE (LEAGUE OF NATIONS)
By P. S. KING & SON, Ltd.
Orchard House, 14 Great Smith Street, Westminster, London, S.W.!
PRINTED
k
BY ALBERT KUNDIG,
GENEVA
CONTENTS
Page
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
vu
PART I
The Development of Social Insurance
INTRODUCTION
1
§ 1. Inadequacy of Individual Thrift
§ 2. Inadequacy of Public Relief
§ 3. Inadequacy of Voluntary Social Insurance
§ 4. Development of Compulsory Social Insurance
§ 5. Gradual Extension of the Functions of Compulsory Social
Insurance
1
2
2
4
5
PART II
The Work of the International Labour Office
INTRODUCTION
6
CHAPTER I: Collection of Information
§ 1. The Social Insurance Section of the Office
§ 2. The International Correspondence Committee
Insurance
CHAPTER I I : Distribution of Information
§ 1. Periodical Publications
§ 2. Technical Studies and Reports
§ 3. Replies to Requests for Information
7
7
PART
on
Social
8
11
11
12
18
III
The Work of the International Labour Conference : The International
Regulations of Soeial Insurance
INTRODUCTION
§ 1.
§ 2.
List of International Social Insurance Regulations
Procedure for the Adoption of Draft Conventions and Recommendations
20
20
22
CHAPTER I: Workmen's Compensation for Accidents
26
Introduction
§ 1. The Principle of Occupational Risk
§ 2. Scope
26
26
28
—
IV
—
Page
§ 3.
§ 4.
§ 5.
§ 6.
§ 7.
Cash Benefits
Form of Cash Benefits
Cash Benefits in Cases of Incapacity
Cash Benefits for Fatal Accidents
Benefits in Kind
Medical, Surgical and Pharmaceutical Aid
Supply and Renewal of Artificial Limbs and Surgical Appliances
Vocational Re-education
Guarantees
Settlement of Disputes
Equality of Treatment for National and Foreign Workers . .
31
31
32
35
38
38
38
39
41
42
43
CHAPTER I I : Sickness Insurance
45
Introduction
45
§
§
§
§
1. Principle of Compulsory Sickness Insurance . . . . . . . .
2. Scope
3. Cash Benefit
4. Benefits in Kind
Medical and Pharmaceutical Aid
Medical Benefit for the Insured Person's Family
Organisation of Medical Services
§ 5. Insurance Institutions
§ 6. Financial Resources and Sharing of the Cost
§ 7. Settlement of Disputes
§ 8. Special Provision concerning Sparsely Populated Territories .
45
46
48
50
50
52
53
54
56
57
58
CHAPTER I I I : Invalidity, Old-Age and Widows' and Orphans' Insurance
and Non-Contributory Pensions
60
Introduction
60
A. — Invalidity, Old-Age and Widows' and Orphans' Insurance . . . .
§ 1. Principle of Compulsory Insurance
§ 2. Scope of Compulsory Insurance
General Formula
Exceptions
Safeguarding of Acquired Rights
§ 3. Risks Covered
Old-Age : Pensionable Age
Invalidity: Definition of Invalidity
Death: Persons Entitled to Pension
§ 4. Conditions of Award
Qualifying Period
Maintenance of Rights
§ 5. Computation of Pensions
Factors Entering into the Computation of Pensions
Bonus for Family Responsibilities
Supplement where Constant Attendance is Needed
§ 6. Minimum Rate of Pensions
§ 7. Benefits in Kind
§ 8. Forfeiture, Suspension and Lapse of Pension Rights . . . .
62
62
62
62
63
66
66
66
68
70
73
73
75
80
80
82
82
82
84
85
—
V
Page
§ 9.
Financial Resources
Insured Persons' Contributions
Employers' Contributions
Subsidies from the Public Authorities
§10. Administrative Organisation
§ 11. Settlement of Disputes
Disputes concerning Benefits
Disputes concerning Liability to Insurance and Rates of
Contributions
§ 12. Position of Foreigners
B. — Non-Contributory Pensions
§ 1.
86
86
87
87
88
89
90
90
90
93
Recognition of Non-Contributory Schemes in the International Regulations
Risks Covered
Conditions of Award
Residence Condition
Economic Condition : Means Limit
Computation of Pensions
Right of Appeal .
Position of Foreigners
Forfeiture or Suspension of Pensions
93
95
96
96
97
98
98
99
100
CHAPTER IV: Maintenance of Migrant Workers' Pension Rights . . .
101
§ 2.
§ 3.
§ 4.
§5.
§ 6.
§7.
§ 1 . Problem of the Maintenance of Rights
§ 2. Maintenance of Rights in Course of Acquisition
§3. Maintenance of Acquired Rights
§4. Mutual Assistance in Administration
§ 5. Operation of International Scheme
CHAPTER V: Some Final Observations
101
102
105
106
107
110
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I: Texts of the General Resolution concerning Social
Insurance and of the Draft Conventions and Recommendations
adopted by the International Labour Conference on Workmen's
Compensation, Sickness Insurance, and Invalidity, Old-Age and
Survivors' Insurance
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
—
—
—
—
—
General Resolution concerning Social Insurance
Workmen's Compensation
Sickness Insurance
Invalidity, Old-Age, and Survivors' Insurance
Maintenance of Migrants'Pension Rights
121
121
123
133
143
172
—
VI
Page
APPENDIX I I : Texts of the Guiding Principles, laid down by the International Committee of Experts on Social Insurance, for Curative
and Preventive Assistance to be provided by Invalidity, Old-Age,
and Widows' and Orphans' Insurance Institutions, and for the
Economical Administration of Medical and Pharmaceutical Benefits
to be provided by Sickness Insurance Institutions
Guiding Principles of Curative and Preventive Action by Invalidity,
Old-Age, and Widows' and Orphans' Insurance Institutions . .
Economical Administration of Medical and Pharmaceutical Benefits
APPENDIX III.: Principal Stages in the Development of Compulsory
Social Insurance Legislation
180
180
184
188
ERRATUM
PAGE 18 : Lines 6-8 under the heading " Reports in Preparation " should read :
" The third will consist of national monographs on the statistical basis,
actuarial estimates and financial systems of pension insurance."
INTRODUCTION
From 1919 to 1935 the International Labour Office has published
a large body of material on social insurance problems, and the
International Labour Conference has adopted a number of Draft
Conventions and Recommendations, which together constitute a
whole complex of regulations. It has therefore been considered
advisable to prepare a general study giving an account of the work
done and the results obtained during the past fifteen years.
This is the purpose of the present work, which is composed of
three parts.
Part I surveys the historical evolution of national social insurance
laws throughout the world, in order to illustrate the national
developments on which the action of the International Labour
Organisation has been based.
Part II describes the work of the International Labour Office
in the field of social insurance and the methods it has adopted in
carrying out its task, which consists primarily in the collection
and distribution of information.
Part III gives an account of the conditions in which international
regulations on social insurance have been drafted and the reasons
leading the Conference to adopt the particular solutions embodied
in the Draft Conventions and Recommendations concerning workmen's compensation for industrial accidents, sickness insurance,
and invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance.1
In addition, there are three appendices. The first reproduces a
general resolution on social insurance and the Draft Conventions
and Recommendations concerning workmen's compensation for
industrial accidents, sickness insurance and invalidity, old-age and
1
This work does not deal with compensation for occupational diseases,
maternity insurance and unemployment insurance.
— VIII
—
widows' and orphans' insurance. The second reproduces the guiding
principles laid down by the international Committee of Experts
on social insurance for curative and preventive assistance to be
provided by invalidity, old-age, and widows' and orphans' insurance
institutions, and for the economical administration of medical
and pharmaceutical benefits to be provided by sickness insurance
institutions. The third records, for each country and class of risk,
the principal stages in the development of national social insurance
legislation, and shows the constant progress made by the principle
of compulsory insurance, which may now be said to have won
universal acceptance.
The present work is addressed to any reader who is interested
in labour problems, but is intended more particularly for social
insurance experts belonging to national administrative departments
or institutions, parliaments, workers' and employers' organisations,
universities, etc.
It is hoped that it will enable them to realise the growing place
occupied by compulsory social insurance in the work being done
in every country for the establishment of social security.
It is also hoped that it will give them an exact idea of the aim
of international regulations, the methods of preparing them, and
the fundamental principles of social insurance as laid down by the
International Labour Organisation.
PART I
THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL INSURANCE
INTRODUCTION
The vast majority of wage earners are dependent for their
livelihood solely or mainly on the regular exercise of some trade.
When this activity stops temporarily or permanently owing to an
industrial accident, sickness, invalidity, old age, premature death
or involuntary unemployment, the income of the worker's family
is seriously affected or completely disappears. This means that the
workers and the members of their families have a constant feeling
of insecurity, which is an obstacle to the satisfactory organisation
of industry and to social peace.
Every political and economic system is bound to search for a
sound solution of this abiding problem of the insecurity of the
workers, with which public opinion, Parliaments and Governments
are unceasingly brought face to face in consequence either of the
efforts of the workers' organisations or of the regard for social
justice felt by individuals and groups.
A brief account is given below of the methods that have been
adopted to solve this problem and the increasing tendency of the
schemes for protecting the workers against occupational and
social risks to take the form of compulsory insurance.
§ 1. — Inadequacy of Individual Thrift
Large numbers of workers strive to accumulate in good time
sufficient savings to enable them to face the difficulties which
enforced idleness, whatever its cause, may later bring; but it is
not certain that wage earners as a body are in fact in a position to
save considerable sums. In a general way it may be asked whether
wage earners receive a remuneration high enough both to meet
the daily wants of themselves and their families, and at-the same
time to leave a surplus for saving.
— 2 —
There can hardly be more than one reply. In general it may be
affirmed that wages—apart from those of certain categories of
particularly well-paid skilled workers in a few countries—are on
the whole low, so low as to make it impossible for the sums needed
to meet occupational and social risks to be saved by individual
effort.
Moreover, certain risks cannot be fully met by individual thrift,,
even in the case of highly paid workers. Sickness, invalidity and
death may occur at any moment and do in fact sometimes strike
down young workers at a time when the savings they have put by,
however great and patient the effort involved, cannot but be wholly
insufficient.
§ 2. — Inadequacy of Public Relief
A simple way of dealing with those who are without resources
and incapable of earning their living by their own labour—the
victims of accidents, the sick, invalids, widows, orphans and the
aged—consists in supporting them at the expense of the community.
Is this solution rational, sufficient, and acceptable to the workers ?
Despite the improvements introduced in many poor laws towards
the end of the nineteenth and at the beginning of the twentieth
centuries, the level of assistance is low, at times absurdly so; nor
is relief accorded as a right, but only after a close enquiry into the
applicant's means. Notwithstanding the mitigation or repeal of
the provisions of the poor laws prescribing loss of civil or political
rights, the conditions under which poor relief is granted are clearly
incompatible with the dignity of the worker.
Another objection to poor relief is that it does not come into
action until destitution has occurred. It has no preventive policy
and affords no encouragement to thrift.
§ 3. — Inadequacy of Voluntary Social Insurance
Since individual thrift is insufficient and recourse to public
relief is open to serious criticism, the only recourse is the pooling
of risks and resources, that is to say, insurance. Commercial insurance must be immediately rejected, for in spite of its great development, its high rates make it generally inaccessible to persons of
small means, and in particular to the vast mass of wage-earning
workers.
— 3—
Social insurance should create common interests among the
workers whom it is to protect. The question is whether it should
be voluntary or compulsory.
Voluntary social insurance, which already possesses a lengthy
history, has developed considerably, particularly during the last
fifty years or so, in the form of mutual benefit societies. Favourably
regarded by the authorities, often given the status of privileged
associations, and in some States more or less liberally subsidised,
such societies have achieved much. But admirable though this
expression of voluntary solidarity may be, it is difficult to regard it
as a thoroughly satisfactory solution of the problem of the insecurity
of labour.
First of all, the number of persons protected by voluntary social
insurance is, though considerable, but small in comparison with
the wage-earning population. Except in four or five countries, it
cannot be denied that the great majority of workers do not insure
voluntarily, and though it may be true that this abstention is in
part the result of man's natural improvidence, it is still more due
to the low level and the precarious nature of the worker's resources,
which are often absorbed to the last penny by the needs of his
everyday life.
Voluntary insurance institutions are as a rule too numerous,
too weak financially, and ill distributed between town and country.
The smallness of their membership and its fluctuations—particularly in times of economic depression—involve irregularity of
experience and endanger the financial stability of many institutions,
especially when it is a case of covering serious risks such as prolonged
sickness, invalidity and death.
Further, the resources of voluntary social insurance institutions,
derived in the main from members' contributions, are usually small
and do not permit of the payment of such benefits as would
compensate adequately for the losses the insurance is meant to
cover. An exception should, however, be made in respect of a small
number of institutions in particularly well-organised occupations
and in industries which are exceptionally concentrated or have
enjoyed a long period of prosperity. In such circumstances, wellmanaged insurance funds may be found, provided with sufficient
resources, sometimes due to large contributions from employers,
and paying valuable benefits. But such funds are rare, and it may
be said that on the whole voluntary social insurance has failed to
protect the workers sufficiently against various risks and particularly against premature invalidity and early death.
— 4 —
§ 4. — Development of Compulsory Social Insurance
The results of voluntary social insurance not having been
sufficient, compulsory insurance has become a necessity. In nearly
every country the first legislation on the subject gave rise to no
small degree of controversy, but it is now universally agreed that
the modern State has the right to make insurance compulsory
and ought to do so in the public interest. The individual cannot
justly claim the right to a life of improvidence which may mean
that in case of sickness, invalidity, old age or death he or his
dependants are left on the hands of the community.
Compulsory social insurance was first introduced in Germany
in 1883 and has gradually conquered the world. At present, legislation based on the principle of compulsion is to be found in nearly
every country, principally in Europe, but also outside Europe.
In every continent, and under every political, economic or social
system, whether liberal or authoritarian, collectivist or capitalist,
compulsory social insurance is recognised as an essential factor
of any rational social policy.
In order to give some idea of the scope and rapidity of the
development of compulsory social insurance in the world, a list is
given in the Appendix, showing for each country the principal
stages in the introduction or extension of legislation on compulsory
industrial accident insurance or workmen's compensation, compulsory sickness and maternity insurance, and compulsory invalidity,
old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance. So far as the information available allows, the number of persons insured under each
scheme is also given, on the basis of the most recent statistics
received by the Office.
The list and dates contained in this Appendix prove to the full
that compulsory social insurance has steadily developed and
improved in every part of the world.
Its progress has not been held up by the economic depression.
It is true that from 1931 to 1933 a certain hesitancy could be seen
in several countries, and sometimes the preparation of important
measures was suspended or their adoption was postponed. But this
period of uncertainty was brief, and in 1934 and 1935 the movement
gained renewed force and made substantial progress.
The tendency has been particularly strong outside Europe,
especially in countries which had enjoyed lasting prosperity for
some ten to forty years, and which until the depression had perhaps
ended to underestimate the need for social insurance. In these
— 5 —
countries the depression has brought public opinion, Governments
and Parliaments face to face with the problem of the insecurity
of labour, and it is noteworthy that nearly all the measures proposed
seek to establish security by way of compulsory social insurance. In
the United States, for instance, a system of contributory pensions
was approved in August 1935, which will apply to over 25 million
workers.
The movement is progressing and important schemes for the
establishment of compulsory social insurance are in preparation
or being discussed by the Parliaments of many countries. Examples
in the American Continent are Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Peru, etc.
§ 5. — Gradual Extension of the Functions of Compulsory Social
Insurance
At the same time as the territorial scope of compulsory social
insurance has tended to become universal, the functions of insurance have widened and multiplied, with a view to securing
increasingly complete protection for the workers.
At first the principal aim of social insurance was to grant cash
benefits as partial compensation for the injury suffered owing to a
temporary or permanent loss or reduction of earning capacity.
Next, it became a primary aim, whenever this seemed possible,
to cure the injured, sick or disabled worker, and to restore his
earning capacity as completely as possible, t:o that the part played
by curative medical assistance became more and more important.
Finally, and more recently, it has been realised that prevention
is better than cure, and the aims of insurance have been directed
more and more towards the organisation of the prevention of
accidents, sickness and invalidity, in order to reduce the cost of
cash benefits and improve the material and moral conditions of the
community.
At the present time, therefore, compulsory social insurance has
three functions: compensation, restoration, prevention.
The manner in which the Office and the International Labour
Conference have collaborated in the universal extension of
compulsory social insurance is described below.
PART II
THE WORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL
LABOUR OFFICE
INTRODUCTION
The International Labour Office is required by its Constitution to
collect and distribute information on social insurance, and in addition to prepare any reports on social insurance questions which
come before the International Labour Conference for its consideration.
The collection of information is entrusted within the Office to
the Social Insurance Section, which may consult an international
committee of experts on social insurance.
The distribution of information is effected by means of the
publications of the Office, and more directly by replies to the
questions frequently put to the Office.
A brief account is given below of the work of the Social Insurance
Section and of the International Correspondence Committee on
Social Insurance, together with a survey of the publications on
social insurance and a note on the replies to requests for information.
_ 7
—
CHAPTER I
COLLECTION OF INFORMATION
§ 1. — The Social Insurance Section of the Office
When the Office was founded, the Director had from the first
provided, in his scheme for its internal organisation, for the creation
of a Social Insurance Section. A small Social Insurance Service
was, in fact, set up in August 1920, but it was not until October 1923
that this Service, then turned into a Section, was given a larger
staff and instructed to prepare the reports that the Governing
Body had decided to submit to the 1925 Session of the Conference.
At present the Social Insurance Section is composed of the Chief
of the Section, ten members of section, including two actuaries
and one doctor, and three clerks or secretaries.
It is the duty of this Section to collect and keep up to date
international material on social insurance. This entails the regular
study of laws and regulations on industrial accident insurance and
workmen's compensation, sickness insurance, maternity insurance,
and invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance; 1
the regular sifting of parliamentary reports and reports on the
working of insurance services and institutions, whether administrative, medical or actuarial reports ; and the reading of a considerable
number of reviews on social insurance and other social questions.
A few significant figures will illustrate how comprehensive this
work of centralising information actually is. There are at present
over 400 insurance laws in the different countries of the world,
which are constantly undergoing amendment, and these amendments have to be followed. In addition, the Office receives yearly
over 100 reports on the working ot such laws, and these reports
contain numerous statistics.
1
Unemployment insurance is dealt with by another Section of the Office,
which also studies the situation on the labour market, questions of placing,
migration, etc.
Insurance or compensation for occupational diseases is within the competence
of the Industrial Medicine Section.
— 8 —
On the basis of this material the Social Insurance Section
contributes to the publications of the Office, prepares reports for
the Governing Body and the Conference, draws up technical
studies, and replies to requests for information.
§ 2. — The International Correspondence Committee on Social
Insurance
In July 1921, reporting to the Governing Body, the Director of
the Office stated that the Permanent International Committee on
Social Insurance had suspended its work since 1914 and that it
would be most desirable for the Office to set up an international
advisory committee of experts, who might be consulted by the
Social Insurance Section when necessary.
This proposal was approved by the Governing Body, and the
Committee was formed in 1922. At the outset it was composed of
15 members, but it has been gradually enlarged, and in 1930 it
was completely reorganised in accordance with the principles laid
down in a report by the Director of the Office which the Governing
Body approved at its session of June 1930. The committee is now
composed of about 100 members, belonging to 35 countries, and
selected from among heads of government departments dealing
with the drafting of legislation and its enforcement and directors
of insurance institutions. They include 20 experts on social insurance
questions in general, 23 on industrial accident insurance, 19 on
sickness and maternity insurance, 19 on invalidity, old-age
and widows' and orphans' insurance, 11 social actuaries, and
10 specialists on the medical aspects of social insurance questions.
The members are selected by the Director of the Office and
appointed for a term of three years after approval by the Governing
Body.
It is the function of the Committee to give technical advice on the
questions submitted to it by the International Labour Office. As a
rule such consultation involves three stages.
In the first place, when the Office has decided to consult the
Committee on a particular question it draws up a preliminary
report on the question, together with a questionnaire, and submits
these to the experts within whose field of competence the question
lies.
Next the Office centralises the replies made by the experts and
uses them for the preparation of a second report, in which it draws
the conclusions suggested by the results of the written consultation.
— 9 —
Lastly, if this is considered necessary or expedient, the Office
may hold a meeting at Geneva of a certain number of experts with
a view to discussing the results of the written consultation. At
these meetings, which last from two to five days, reports, conclusions or guiding principles have been adopted, hitherto always
unanimously, and after examination by the Governing Body they
have been transmitted to the Governments or institutions
concerned.
The experts give their opinions on purely personal grounds,
and can in no way bind their Governments or the institutions or
associations to which they may happen to belong. Similarly,
when the Governing Body of the Office authorises the communication to the g o v e r n m e n t s of the conclusions of the Committee,
it does so only by way of information and in no way assumes any
responsibility for the methods advocated or principles adopted b y
the experts.
Since 1921 the Office has consulted the Committee on eight
occasions, as briefly indicated below.
First meeting; 22-24 September 1921 (5 experts):
Consultation on the expediency of setting up an international
committee of experts on social insurance and the methods of
working of such a committee.
Second meeting; 14-15 December 1923 (6 experts):
Consultation on the draft questionnaire concerning workmen's
compensation for industrial accidents to be submitted to the
Governments with a view to the 1925 Session of the Conference.
Consultation on the plan of a general report on social insurance to
be submitted to the 1925 Session of the Conference.
Third meeting; 17-19 March 1925 (7 experts):
Consultation on the text of the general report on social insurance
to be submitted to the 1925 Session of the Conference.
Fourth meeting; 22-24 July 1926 (10 experts):
Consultation on the plan of a study of social charges and on the
possibility of making an international comparison of social
charges.
Fifth meeting; 22-24 June 1931 (15 experts):
Consultation on the questions that might suitably form the subject
of international regulations on invalidity, old-age and widows'
and orphans' insurance and on the possibility of making an
international comparison of the rates of invalidity, old-age and
widows' and orphans' pensions.
— 10 —
Sixth meeting; 14-16 December 1931 (12 actuaries):
Consultation on the technical solution of the problem of the maintenance of migrants' pension rights under invalidity, old-age
and widows' and orphans' insurance.
Seventh meeting; 12-14 October 1932 (14 experts, including 13 doctors):
Preparation of draft guiding principles with regard to curative
and preventive action by invalidity, old-age and widows' and
orphans' insurance institutions.
Eighth meeting; 9-11 July 1934 (23 experts, including 12 doctors):
Preparation of guiding principles on the economical administration
of medical and pharmaceutical benefits in sickness insurance.
The experience of several years has shown that the consultation
of experts can render very valuable services, especially as regards
more technical questions which are not yet in a condition to form
the subject of Conventions or Recommendations for adoption by
the Conference. The Office proposes to develop this form of international collaboration as much as the financial means at its disposal
will allow. Unfortunately these financial means have hitherto been
somewhat limited, the credit provided for the meetings of social
insurance experts having varied between 10,000 and 16,000 francs
a year.
The Office earnestly hopes that it will be possible to find sufficient
funds for t h e organisation of a meeting of experts once a year, lasting
not less t h a n a week and drawing on the collaboration of extraEuropean experts, especially now, when social insurance legislation
is spreading so rapidly outside Europe.
—11 —
CHAPTER II
DISTRIBUTION OF INFORMATION
Information on social insurance is distributed on the one hand
in the form of the publications of the Office (periodicals, technical
studies and reports, and reports to the Governing Body or the
Conference) and, on the other, of the replies given by the Office to
the questions directly addressed to it.
§ 1. — Periodical Publications
1. Legislative
Series.
The principal social insurance laws have been published since 1920
in the " Legislative Series " in separate brochures, appearing in
English, French and German.
In addition, annual volumes are published of the social legislation
for each year.
2.
Industrial
and Labour
Information.
The Office publishes a weekly entitled " Industrial and Labour
Information ". Most of the numbers contain an international
section on social insurance, in which new laws and the proposals
drawn up by parliamentary or government committees are analysed
and the principal events in the field of the application of legislation
and the work of social insurance institutions are described.
3.
International
Labour
Review.
The " International Labour Review " is the official monthly of
the Office, and frequently contains legal or technical articles on
important social insurance problems, which are written either by
members of the Office staff or by external collaborators. In addition,
the Review contains notes on legislation and statistics giving the
results of the application of social insurance schemes in a large
number of countries.
— 12 —
4.
The I.L.O. Year-Book.
Once a year the Office publishes, in English, French and German,
a volume entitled " The I.L.O. Year-Book ", which contains an
important chapter on social insurance, giving for each country a
general account of legislative action and practical application in
the field of social insurance.
A reprint of this chapter is transmitted every year to government
departments engaged in preparing legislation and supervising its
application, central insurance institutions, and the chief periodicals
dealing with social insurance questions, and the Office has noted
with satisfaction that year by year this brochure is being more
-widely reproduced and summarised in a growing number of
bulletins and periodicals dealing with social insurance and other
social questions.
§ 2. — Technical Studies and Reports
In addition to these periodicals, the Office publishes a series of
legal or technical studies on conditions of employment and problems
of social legislation. A brief analysis is given below of those which
deal with workmen's compensation, sickness insurance, invalidity,
old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance, and social services.
General Problems of Social Insurance. (1925; xxvin -f- 136 pp.;
published in English, French and German.)
This work, after surveying the historical development of social
insurance, discusses the more important aspects of some of the
essential problems: the scope of social insurance, benefits, financial
resources, financial systems, insurance institutions, and the problem
of the unification or co-ordination of social insurance.
The Office did not design this report to be a purely theoretical
and subjective study, putting forward original opinions on each
problem and serving as a philosophy of insurance, or a purely
juridical study, giving a minute analysis of all social insurance
legislation. It advocates no special view, but simply presents in
schematic form a synopsis, as clear and objective as possible, of
the different conceptions which underlie legislation in the different
countries and of the methods by which those conceptions have been
realised. The only personal aspects of this work may be said to
lie in the effort made to deduce with the utmost caution on each
point, not only the essential provisions of existing legislation
— 13 —
but the tendencies displayed by the more recent laws and the
possible trend of future evolution.
Compensation for Industrial Accidents. Comparative Analysis of
National Laws. (1925; 655 pp.; published in English, French
and German.)
For some fifty States, this work examines the principal problems
that are necessarily raised by national legislation on workmen's
compensation or industrial accident insurance: scope (undertakings
covered and workers benefiting); risks covered (in particular, the
notion of industrial accidents); cash benefits and benefits in kind;
systems of guarantee against the insolvency of the insurer or uninsured employers, and insurance institutions ; notification of accidents
and settlement of disputes; position of foreigners.
In each of these sections the principal factors of the problem are
first considered and next the possible solutions. This is followed by
a classification of national laws and regulations according to the
particular solution they embody. The section concludes with a
fairly detailed analysis of the national laws and regulations.
A comparative table is attached to each section, bringing out the
chief provisions of each national measure, thus making it possible
to obtain a rapid idea of its characteristic features.
Workmen's Compensation in the United States, by Ralph H.
Blanchard, Ph. D., Columbia University. (1926; 103 pp. ; published
in English and French.)
The preceding volume took no account of workmen's compensation legislation in the United States, since such legislation is
within the competence of the various States and the laws and
regulations in force form a considerable body of material. The
Office therefore considered it preferable to deal with the United
States legislation in a separate volume and requested an eminent
American specialist, Mr. Ralph H. Blanchard, Professor at Columbia
University, to prepare it.
Sickness Insurance. (1926; 133 pp.; published in English, French
and German.)
This little volume contains a comparative analysis of the national
laws on compulsory sickness insurance or voluntary sickness
insurance in force in 1925 in some twenty States. The various
schemes are considered from the point of view of whether insurance
— 14' —
is compulsory or voluntary, whether it includes only wage earners or
also independent workers, how the insured persons are grouped and
in what way the insurance institutions are organised, what financial
resources they possess, and what benefits in cash and in kind they
grant to insured persons and members of their family.
The various solutions to these problems embodied in national
laws and regulations are given, but not in detail, since the volume
confines'itself to describing the typical solutions characteristic of
prevailing conceptions in the different countries. The laws and
regulations are grouped according to their affinities. Thus, without
entering into details as to any particular law, the report enables the
reader to gather the guiding principles of legislation in the field
of sickness insurance.
Compulsory Sickness Insurance. Comparative Analysis of National
Laws and Statistics. (1927 ; 796 pp. ; published in English, French
and German.)
In 1925, at its Seventh Session, the International Labour
Conference adopted a resolution requesting the Office to continue
its work of collecting information with regard to social insurance
and specifiing that the information to be collected and published
should relate not only to the progress of legislation but to the
statistics of its working. This volume dealing with compulsory
sickness insurance was published in pursuance of this comprehensive
programme.
The volume comprises six parts which systematically discuss
from the international standpoint the principal aspects of compulsory sickness insurance: scope; benefits; financial resources and their
management; insurance institutions and organisation of supervision; disputes, judicial authorities, offences and penalties;
position of foreign workers.
In each part, chapter or sub-division the same method is followed:
first, the essential elements of the problem are set forth; then,
the characteristics of the different types of solution; next, a classification of the laws of the several countries according to the solutions which they embody; and lastly, an analysis of the national
laws and the statistics of their working.
The object of this method is on the one hand to give a general
survey which enables the various systems to be understood in
their relation to the movement of ideas and the evolution of social
institutions, and, on the other, to present the law in each country
— 15 —
in a form sufficiently exact for it to convey a correct impression of
its character. The work therefore offers neither a complete presentation of social doctrines nor an integral reproduction of the laws
and regulations of the several countries in all their details, but
instead a methodical summary of the plans which have been realised
in legislation and an analysis of the social character of the various
national systems.
In presenting the statistical evidence of the working of the laws
in the different countries, data relating to a series of years are
given wherever available. The idea was to give the figures for the
period commencing immediately before the war and continuing
up to 1925. This was not always possible, however, since for some
countries, in spite of requests addressed to Governments and associations of employers or workers, no statistics were obtainable.
For others, again, the information relates only to a few years or
even to a single year. Moreover, as the official reports of insurance
institutions are published one, two, or even three years late, the
tables often stop at 1924 or even 1923. The national statistics, the
character of which is mainly determined by that of the laws to
which they respectively relate, exhibit considerable differences.
Though it cannot be claimed that they are comparable, an attempt
is nevertheless made to present them in a systematic manner by
classifying them and calculating certain ratios with respect to
those matters which possess the greatest international interest.
Voluntary Sickness Insurance. Collection of National Studies
(Laws and Statistics). (1927; xlviii + 470 pp.; published in
English, French and German.)
As in the case of compulsory sickness insurance, the Office
endeavoured to collect the most complete and exact information
possible concerning schemes of voluntary insurance and statistics
of their working. It was not deemed expedient however to make,
as was done for compulsory insurance, a comparative analysis of
national schemes of voluntary insurance. The task was, if not
altogether impossible, at least extremely difficult, by reason of the
great variety of voluntary insurance institutions and the very
fragmentary nature of the information it was possible to obtain.
in the case of a number of the countries.
The Office therefore condensed the results of its studies in national
monographs relating to the following countries: Argentina,
Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Great
— 16 —
Britain, Northern Ireland, Irish Free State, India, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Palestine, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Union
of South Africa and Uruguay. Each of these monographs tries to
follow the same plan in the analysis of the laws and the presentation
of the statistics: insurance institutions; scope; benefits; financial
resources.
A general introduction of some length discusses the historical
development of voluntary sickness insurance and the main features
of the schemes in operation.
Benefits of the German Sickness Insurance System from the Point
of View of Social Hygiene, by Franz Gold mann and Alfred
Grotjahn. (1928; 188 pp.; published in English, French and
German.)
During the last forty years there have, been profound changes
in the functions of sickness insurance. When sickness insurance
institutions were first formed, their principal work was
that of paying cash benefits, but by degrees they have given more
and more place to medical and pharmaceutical benefits, and more
recently they have paid serious attention to organising the
prevention of disease.
The development of medical and pharmaceutical benefits and
preventive action has been of special importance in Germany;
and the International Labour Office, in agreement with the Health
Section of the League of Nations, therefore thought it would be of
interest to request two eminent German specialists to assess the
influence of sickness insurance benefits on public health, to analyse
the work done and results obtained by the insurance funds from
the point of view of the protection of the health of the workers,
and to describe the attempts made in Germany to co-ordinate the
action of the sickness insurance funds1 with that of all other
institutions or associations working in the same field.
In the resulting volume the specialists describe the general
principles of German sickness insurance, the curative and preventive
effects of its benefits, and the methods of co-operation established
in the field of social hygiene between sickness insurance funds and
other insurance, welfare, and assistance institutions. In describing
the German experience they are led to study the outlines of a
national health programme for the State, and to sketch the general
rules for the collaboration that ought to exist between insurance
institutions and public health services.
— 17 —
Compulsory Pension Insurance. Comparative Analysis of National
Laws, and Statistics. (1933; xii -f- 782 pp.; published in English,
French and German.)
This volume contains an analysis of some fifty laws on compulsory
invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance, in force
at the end of 1932 in about thirty countries, together with t h e
statistics of their working. It is composed of six parts: scope;
risks covered and cash benefits; benefits in kind ; financial resources;
administrative organisation (insurance institutions, supervision,
settlement of disputes); transitional schemes.
The method of examining the problems is the same as that followed
in the 1927 volume on compulsory sickness insurance. The analysis
of the national laws is, however, more concentrated, the national
monographs being placed in a separate chapter at the end of each
part. This makes it easier for a reader who wishes to study the work
on national lines, since he has only to seek out five or six passages
in order to assemble the essential features of any particular scheme.
Non-Contributory Pensions. (1933; viii + 140 pp.; published in
English, French and German.)
Certain countries possess non-contributory pension schemes
(invalidity pensions, old-age pensions, mothers' pensions) which
supplement or replace pensions under a compulsory invalidity,
old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance scheme. In order
t h a t material should be available on both the principal forms for
covering the risks of invalidity and old-age, the Office decided to
publish a separate volume containing a comparative analysis of
non-contributory pension laws.
This volume contains four parts in addition to a general introduction : pensions for the aged, invalid and blind ; mothers' pensions ;
financial resources; pension authorities.
International Survey of Social Services. (1933; xxiii -f 688 pp.)
This work contains national monographs
t h e following 24 countries:
Australia
Germany
Belgium
Great Britain and
Bulgaria
Northern Ireland
Canada
Hungary
Czechoslovakia
India
Denmark
Irish Free State
Finland
Italy
Japan
France
Luxemburg
on social services in
Netherlands
Poland
Rumania
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Union of South Africa
Yugoslavia
— 18 —
The information for each country is given under six heads:
statistics of population, showing the distribution of the workers
by main economic branches or occupational groups ; social insurance ;
housing ; family allowances ; holidays with pay.
For each social service a brief analysis is given of the legislation
in force, followed by the statistics of working for 1930. The social
insurance statistics, for example, relate to the number of insured
persons, income, expenditure and the annual balance sheet.
The preparation of this volume called for the sifting of a vast
quantity of material and the analysis of over 400 laws, and the
results of their working have been condensed in nearly 500 statistical
tables. The abundance of the information given in this work
suggests that it should prove of value to all institutions and persons
who wish to obtain a general view of the extension and working
of social services in a large number of countries.
Reports in Preparation
The Office is at present engaged in preparing four publications :
The first will be a study of the economical administration of
medical and pharmaceutical benefits in sickness insurance.
The second will be a report on the principal questions arising
out of the organisation of the medical service in sickness insurance.
The third will consist of national monographs on a statistical
basis concerning financial systems and actuarial estimates in
pension insurance.
The fourth will be a study of social services in 1933 for some
forty countries.
§ 3. — Replies to Requests for Information
The Office receives every year a large number of requests for
information on social insurance, and replying to these questions
constitutes one of the less well-known although more interesting
of its activities.
From 1 January 1924 to 31 August 1935 it received 1,200 requests
for information on social insurance questions from over fifty
countries. Most of these requests are made by Governments,
national administrative departments, central insurance institutions,
employers' and workers' organisations, members of Parliament,
universities, etc.
— 19 —
As regards subject and scope the questions vary widely. Some
merely call for the sending of the text of an Act or regulation.
Often, however, they necessitate the collection and examination
of a body of international material on legal, administrative, actuarial,
or medical questions. In a fair number of cases the Social Insurance
Section has had to give its opinion on Bills intended for submission
to Parliaments.
Owing to the number and complexity of these requests for information, the preparation of the replies absorbs much of the time of the
Social Insurance Section, which endeavours to satisfy the requests
it receives as fully as possible. The Office considers that this is a
form of distributing information which is particularly suitable for
the varying and constantly changing needs of the administrative
departments, institutions and associations concerned in the development and satisfactory administration of national social insurance
laws.
PART III
THE WORK OF THE INTERNATIONAL
LABOUR CONFERENCE
T H E INTERNATIONAL REGULATION OF SOCIAL
INSURANCE
INTRODUCTION
From 1919 to 1935, the Conference adopted a large number of
international regulations concerning social insurance. These include
16 Conventions and 13 Recommendations bearing exclusively,
mainly, or in a subsidiary manner on workmen's compensation
for industrial accidents and occupational diseases, sickness
insurance, maternity insurance, invalidity, old-age and widows'
and orphans' insurance, and unemployment insurance.
Before considering the provisions contained in the Conventions
and Recommendations concerning workmen's compensation for
accidents, sickness insurance, and invalidity, old-age and widows'
and orphans' insurance, it may be useful to enumerate the decisions
of the Conference as a whole and to indicate the methods employed
in drawing up international labour regulations.
§ 1. — List of International Social Insurance Regulations
Social insurance questions have been on the agenda of eleven
Sessions of the Conference. The list in chronological order is as
follows :
First Session; Washington, October-November 1919:
Draft Convention concerning unemployment, which makes provision
for equality of treatment for national and foreign workers in
unemployment insurance schemes.
Recommendation concerning unemployment, which invites States
Members to establish an effective scheme of unemployment
insurance.
— 21 —
Draft Convention concerning the employment of women before
and after childbirth, which lays down that women employed in
industrial or commercial undertakings shall be paid, during six
weeks before and six weeks after confinement, cash benefit and
medical benefit provided out of public funds or by means of a
system of insurance.
Second Session; Genoa, June-July 1920:
Recommendation concerning unemployment insurance for seamen.
Third Session; Geneva, October-November 1921:
Draft Convention concerning workmen's compensation in agriculture.
Recommendation concerning social insurance in agriculture.
Recommendation concerning the protection, before and after
childbirth, of women wage earners in agriculture (payment of
maternity benefit, provided, for instance, by means of a system
of insurance).
Sixth Session; Geneva, June-July, 1924:
First discussion of the question of equality of treatment for national
and foreign workers as regards workmen's compensation for
accidents.
Seventh Session; Geneva, May-June 1925:
Draft Convention and two Recommendations concerning workmen's
compensation for accidents.
Draft Convention and Recommendation concerning workmen's
compensation for occupational diseases.
Draft Convention concerning equality of treatment for national and
foreign workers as regards workmen's compensation for accidents.
General resolution concerning social insurance.
Tenth Session; Geneva, May-June 1927:
Draft Convention ^concerning compulsory sickness insurance for
workers in industry and commerce and domestic servants.
Draft Convention concerning sickness insurance for agricultural
workers.
Recommendation concerning the general principles of sickness
insurance.
Thirteenth Session; Geneva, October-November 1929:
First discussion of the questions of shipowners' liability towards
sick or injured seamen and sickness insurance for seamen.
Sixteenth Session; Geneva, April 1932:
First discussion of the question of invalidity, old-age and widows'
and orphans' insurance.
Seventeenth Session; Geneva, June 1933:
Three Draft Conventions concerning invalidity insurance, old-age
insurance, and widows' and orphans' insurance respectively,
for persons employed in industrial or commercial undertakings,
in the liberal professions, and for outworkers and domestic
servants.
— 22 —
Three Draft Conventions concerning invalidity insurance, old-age
insurance, and widows' and orphans' insurance respectively for
persons employed in agricultural undertakings.
Recommendation concerning the general principles of invalidity,
old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance.
First discussion of' the question of unemployment insurance and
various forms of relief for the unemployed.
Eighteenth Session; Geneva, June 1934:
Draft Convention concerning workmen's compensation for occu-.
pational diseases.
Draft Convention ensuring benefit or allowances to the involunjtarily unemployed.
Recommendation concerning unemployment insurance and various
forms of relief for the unemployed.
t
First discussion of the question of an international scheme for the
maintenance of rights under invalidity, old-age and widows' and
orphans' insurance.
Nineteenth Session; Geneva, June 1935:
Draft Convention concerning an international scheme for the
maintenance of rights under invalidity, old-age and widows' and
orphans' insurance.
§ 2. — Procedure for the Adoption of Draft Conventions
and Recommendations
The procedure for adopting Draft Conventions and Recommendations is governed by the Constitution of the International Labour
Organisation and by the Standing Orders of the Conference.
Under the Constitution, items are placed on the agenda of the
Conference either by a decision of the Governing Body of the
Office or by a two-thirds majority vote of the Conference itself.
When a question has been placed on the agenda of a Session of
the Conference, the procedure and the preparatory work vary
according as it has been decided t h a t there shall be a single or a
double discussion.
There are three stages in the single-discussion procedure:
In the first place, Governments are consulted by means of a
questionnaire, drawn up by the Office and containing, together
with a brief statement of the issue, a series of questions designed
to elicit the opinions of the Governments of States Members
in regard to the subject suitable for international regulation.
Then, on the basis of the replies received from Governments,
the Office draws up a report, known as a blue report, containing
the text of these replies, a comparative analysis of them point
by point, a statement of conclusions to be drawn from the
— 23 —
results of the consultation, and a proposed text of a Draft
Convention or Recommendation. Finally, the Office's report
is discussed at the ensuing session of the Conference.
Since 1926, the usual procedure has been that of double discussion, which includes the following stages:
In the first place, the Office draws up a report on the matter placed
on the agenda. This report is known as a grey report and it
contains a description of legislation and practice in the various
countries with reference to the subject on the agenda. This
report is discussed at the next Session of the Conference, first
in committee and then in plenary sitting. If the Conference is
of opinion t h a t the matter is suitable for the adoption of a
Draft Convention or Recommendation, it indicates the points
on which Governments should be consulted. On the basis
of the Conference's decisions, t h e Office drafts a questionnaire,
which must be addressed to Governments not more t h a n a
month after the Conference has risen. In the light of the
. replies received from Governments, the Office draws up a
report known as a blue report, the contents of which have
been described with reference to the single-discussion procedure. This report is addressed to Governments and should
reach them if possible three months before the following
Session of the Conference. The Conference then opens a
second discussion, first in committee and subsequently in
plenary sitting. A vote is taken on every Draft Convention
or Recommendation submitted to the Conference.
A two-thirds majority of the delegates present is necessary for
the adoption of a Draft Convention or Recommendation at the
final vote by the Conference.
A copy of the Draft Convention or Recommendation is sent to
every Member of the International Labour Organisation. States
Members undertake t h a t they will, within a period of one year
from the closing of the Session of the Conference (or if, owing to
exceptional circumstances this is impossible, then at the earliest
practicable moment and in no case later than 18 months from the
closing of the Session of the Conference), bring the Recommendation
or Draft Convention before the authority or authorities competent
to enact legislation or take other action.
In the case of Draft Conventions, when the consent of the
competent authority or authorities has been obtained, each State
— 24 —
Member deposits the formal ratification with the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations and takes such action as may be necessary
to put the provisions of the Convention into effect.
The various stages in the preparation of Draft Conventions and
Recommendations concerning workmen's compensation for accidents, sickness insurance, invalidity, old-age and widows' and
orphans' insurance, and the maintenance of migrant workers'
rights in invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance
are given below.
Workmen's Compensation for Accidents; single-discussion procedure:
January 1924: Governing Body decision to place the question of
workmen's compensation for accidents on the agenda of the
1925 Session of the Conference.
August 1924: Questionnaire sent to Governments.
April 1925: Blue report sent to Governments.
June 1925: Draft Convention and two Recommendations adopted
by the Conference.
Sickness Insurance; single-discussion procedure:
January 1926: Governing Body decision to place the question of
sickness insurance on the agenda of the 1927 Session of the
Conference.
July 1926: Questionnaire sent to Governments.
March 1927: Blue report sent to Governments.
June 1927: Adoption of two Draft Conventions and one Recommendation by the Conference.
Invalidity, Old-Age and Widows' and Orphans' Insurance; doublediscussion procedure:
January 1931: Governing Body decision to place the question of
invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance on the
agenda of the 1933 Session of the Conference.
November 1931: Grey report sent to Governments.
April 1932: First discussion by the Conference.
May 1932: Questionnaire sent to Governments.
April 1933: Blue report sent to Governments.
June 1933: Second discussion and final decision, the adoption of
six Draft Conventions and one Recommendation by the
Conference.
Maintenance of Migrant Workers' Rights under Invalidity, Old-Age and
Widows' and Orphans' Insurance; double-discussion procedure.
June 1933 : Conference decision to place the question of the maintenance of rights on the agenda of the 1934 Session.
March 1934: Grey report sent to Governments.
June 1934: First discussion by the Conference.
July 1934: Questionnaire sent to Governments.
April 1935 : Blue report sent to Governments.
June 1935: Second discussion and final decisión, the adoption of a
Draft Convention by the Conference.
— 25 —
This brief sketch of the procedure shows that, particularly in
the case of double discussion, the adoption of Conventions and
Recommendations is preceded by lengthy preparations, the collection and publication of much international information, and
detailed discussions in which the Governments, workers' and
employers' delegates take part. The resulting international
regulations are thus carefully thought out and worthy of serious
consideration on the part of Governments and employers' and
workers' organisations.
— 26 —
CHAPTER I
WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION FOR ACCIDENTS
INTRODUCTION
The international regulations concerning workmen's compensation for accidents consist of three Draft Conventions and three
Recommendations :
Draft Convention concerning workmen's compensation for accidents (1925);
Draft Convention concerning workmen's compensation in
agriculture (1921);
Draft Convention concerning equality of treatment for national
and foreign workers as regards workmen's compensation for
accidents (1925);
Recommendation concerning the minimum scale of workmen's
compensation (1925);
Recommendation concerning jurisdiction in disputes on workmen's compensation (1925);
Recommendation concerning equality of treatment for national
and foreign workers as regards workmen's compensation for
accidents (1925).
These documents will be analysed as a whole, not in the
chronological order of their adoption by the Conference, but
according to the problems raised, and the solutions given to
each such problem in the Draft Conventions or Recommendations
will be noted.
§ 1. — The Principle of Occupational Risk
The whole body of these international regulations is based on
the principle of occupational risk, which has gradually replaced
throughout the world the principle of employers' liability for
industrial accidents as the legal basis for the right to compensation.
According to the principles of common law there was no liability
except in the case of a personal fault on the part of the employer
— 27 —
or his representatives, and the injured person could obtain compensation only if he could prove his employer to have been at fault.
The employer was not liable for injuries due solely to the worker's
fault, or to chance, or to force majeure, or to some risk inherent
in the work itself and independent of any defect in the material
equipment or management of the undertaking or in the selection
of workers. In such cases the worker had no right to compensation. On the other hand, the employer was liable to pay the
injured person or his dependants compensation for the full amount
of the pecuniary loss suffered if the claimant could prove that the
employer was at fault.
The application of this system gave rise to serious difficulties
and it is now considered to be unfavourable both to the employer
and to the worker.
In a great number of cases it was difficult and sometimes
impossible to prove the employer's responsibility. The procedure
gave rise to disputes and litigation, and delayed the assessment of
the compensation which the injured person nearly always needed
urgently. As a result, relations between employers and workers
tended to become strained.
Further, when the employer had been shown to be at fault, he
had to pay heavy compensation, the amount of which he could not
foresee.
When the principle of occupational risk is adopted, these difficulties disappear, or are considerably reduced. An employer who
carries on various activities and provides work for men and
machines sets up an organisation the operation of which may, and
does in fact, give rise to injuries, the compensation for which,
irrespective of any idea of fault, falls upon the owner. The risks
inherent in work are the consequence of the normal development of
human activity. As a whole they constitute that occupational risk
which comprises all industrial accidents, apart from such as are
wilfully caused by the victim or by the employer or his
representatives.
The pecuniary costs of industrial accidents form one of the
liabilities of the undertaking in the same way as the cost of repair
and depreciation of equipment, the upkeep of premises, the
workers' wages and the salaries of the management. Compensation should therefore be included among the overhead expenses of
the undertaking and falls entirely on the employer.
This system leads, as regards the amount of compensation, to a
compromise. The employer waives the protection which common
— 28 —
law afforded him in the case of accidents not due to his own fault,
and the worker waives a part of the full compensation which he
could claim in the event of his proving fault on the part of the
employer, and receives in return compensation for injuries due to
his own unintentional fault, chance, force majeure, or unknown
causes. The principle of occupational risk therefore involves the
assessment of fixed compensation. This accounts for the existence
in national legislations of fixed scales of compensation, based on the
injured person's wages and allowing for the seriousness of the
consequences of the accident or, in the event of death, the nature
and number of the dependants.
At present all national laws and regulations are based on the
principle of occupational risk, though some do not draw all the
appropriate conclusions from this principle, and contain restrictions
dictated more or less directly by the principle of liability under
common law.
§ 2. — Seope
The scope of a workmen's compensation scheme is determined
with reference to the undertakings covered and the workers
entitled to benefits.
Undertakings Covered
The definition adopted by the Conference is a very broad one.
The Draft Convention provides that the laws and regulations as to
workmen's compensation for accidents shall apply to any enterprise, undertaking or establishment of whatsoever nature, whether
public or private (Article 2, paragraph 1).
Quite a number of Governments had asked that exceptions
should be made to this rule, which had been proposed by the Office,
and such exceptions are to be found in several national laws and
regulations. The exceptions which were most frequently claimed
related to undertakings employing only a few workers or involving
only a slight accident risk.
The Conference did not see fit to allow these exceptions, because
they are in contradiction with the principle of occupational risk.
Whether an undertaking employs a large number of workers or
only a few, whether the accident risk is serious or slight, the injured
person's right to compensation and the employer's liability to pay
such compensation are the same in all cases.
Moreover, the limits proposed as regards the number of workers
employed were so variable, and the definition and classification of
— 29 —
the undertakings which might be considered as involving only a
slight accident risk were so difficult to determine, that the Conference did not think it possible to insert any provision of this kind
in the Draft Convention.
Workers Entitled to Benefit
Here again the definition adopted by the Conference is very
broad. The Draft Convention stipulates that the laws and regulations as to workmen's compensation shall apply to workmen,
employees and apprentices (Article 2, paragraph 1).
Several Governments had asked that exceptions should be
made to this rule, which had likewise been proposed by the Office.
The exceptions for which there was most demand referred to casual
workers, outworkers, members of the employer's family, nonmanual workers whose earnings exceed a certain limit, and domestic
servants.
Both in the special Committee appointed to study the question of
workmen's compensation for accidents and in the plenary sittings
of the Conference, the definition of the workers entitled to benefit
gave rise to lengthy debates in which delegates in favour of applying
the principle of occupational risk to all workers without exception
came into conflict with those in favour of a definition more in
agreement with the present state of national laws and regulations,
the great majority of which make provision for more or less
important and numerous exceptions.
However, two exceptions were allowed without much difficulty
because they apply only to a small number of workers and are to be
found in most national laws. The first refers to persons whose
employment is of a casual nature and who are employed otherwise
than for the purpose of the employer's trade or business (Convention, Article 2, paragraph 2 (a)). The second refers to members
of the employer's family who work exclusively on his behalf and
who live in his house (Convention, Article 2, paragraph 2 (c)).
The same view was taken of the exception referring to domestic
servants. Domestic servants are wage earners; they are under the
orders of an employer; they are dependent on their occupation
for their livelihood. There would consequently appear to be no
doubt that the principle of occupational risk could be applied to
them. Nevertheless, in view of the fact that only a few laws entitle
them to accident compensation, the Conference adopted a definition
excluding them. The right to benefit is allowed only to workmen,
— 30 —
employees and apprentices employed by an undertaking or
establishment.
The question of outworkers was certainly more difficult to settle.
On the one hand, many of them may be considered as being
employed by an undertaking which provides them with the
necessary material? for their work and sometimes even with equipment. On the other hand, they are not under the direct supervision
of the employer, and it may be difficult, in the event of an accident,
to show that there is a causal connection between the work and
the accident. Accordingly a number of laws exclude them from
the compensation scheme. Having regard to differences of opinion
and to the state of national laws and regulations, the Conference
allowed an exception in the case of outworkers (Convention,
Article 2, paragraph 2 (b).
The exclusion of non-manual workers whose remuneration exceeds
a certain limit would appear to be in contradiction with the principle
of occupational risk. In the event of an accident, the worker's
right to and the employer's liability for compensation do not
depend on the amount of earnings. Nevertheless, it was argued
that in the case of such workers the accident risk is a very slight
one, that owing to their comparatively high earnings they are
able to bear their own risk, and finally, that this exception is
made in a fair number of national laws and regulations. In order
to conciliate opposition, the Conference decided to allow an exception in the case of non-manual workers whose remuneration exceeds
a limit to be determined by national laws or regulations (Convention,
Article 2, paragraph 2 (d)). The importance of this exception will
depend upon the limit of earnings fixed by national laws and
regulations.
Finally, the basic Draft Convention of 1925 does not apply to
three other categories of workers:
(1) Seamen and fishermen, for whom provision is to be made
in a later Convention (Article 3, paragraph 1);
(2) Persons covered by some special scheme the terms of which
are not less favourable than those of the Convention
(Article 3, paragraph 2);
(3) Agricultural workers, in regard to whom the Convention.
concerning workmen's compensation in agriculture adopted
in 1921 at the Third Session of the Conference remains in
force (Article 4).
But these are not exceptions properly speaking, since they
refer to special schemes or classes of workers to whom existing
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international Conventions already apply or for whom provision is
to be made subsequently in special Conventions.
In the case of seamen and fishermen, the work of international
regulation has already begun. The liability of shipowners towards
sick or injured seamen was discussed for the first time at the
Thirteenth Session of the Conference (October-November 1929),
and the Office has prepared a proposed Draft Convention, the
discussion of which has been postponed for several years but will
probably take place in 1936.
§ 3. — Cash Benefits
FORM OF CASH BENEFITS
The victims of occupational accidents or their dependants may
receive benefit either in the form of periodical payments (pensions.
if permanent, allowances if temporary), or in the form of a lump
sum or capital amount paid once and for all.
The payment of benefit in the form of a lump sum has been
severely criticised.
In the first place it frequently happens that the sum is quickly
spent by inexperienced beneficiaries who lack the knowledge or
intelligence to use it sensibly. In the event of incapacity so serious
that the injured person is unable to earn any appreciable wages,
or in the event of death, the injured person or his family may find
themselves in a very difficult situation if the capital sum paid to
them has been unwisely spent.
Further, compensation in the form of capital is usually fixed as
a lump sum without reference to the injured person's age. The
amount varies in different national schemes from a half to ten
times the injured person's yearly earnings. In no case is there any
rational relation between the extent of the pecuniary loss suffered
by the injured person and the amount of the compensation awarded.
Clearly the victim's age is an essential factor in determining the
loss he has suffered, and it would be unfair to allow the same
benefit to a young worker, of 25 years of age for instance, who
may hope for a further 25 or 30 years of occupational activity,
and to an insured person of say 55 or 60 years of age whose
occupational career has come to an end or is very near doing so.
If the same lump sum were paid to both workers for the same
injury, it would amount to paying them equal compensation
for an unequal loss.
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In view of these considerations, the Conference was clearly in
favour of paying cash benefit in the form of a pension where permanent incapacity or death results from the injury (Convention,
Article 5, paragraph 1). In some cases, however, there is much to
he said for paying benefit in the form of a lump sum, since this
enables the beneficiary to acquire a business, enter some other
occupation, buy a farm, or the like. Hence the Conference decided
that compensation might be paid wholly or partially in a lump
sum if the competent authority is satisfied that it will be properly utilised (Convention, Article 5, paragraph 2).
But whatever the form of the benefit, whether that of a pension or
of a lump sum, the amount of the compensation should be the same.
In order to stress the necessity for this equivalence, the Conference
inserted in the Recommendation concerning the minimum scale
of compensation a provision to the effect that where compensation
is paid in a lump sum, this should not be less than the capitalised
value of the corresponding periodical payment (Recommendation,
section I, paragraph 2).
CASH BENEFITS IN CASES OF INCAPACITY
Date from which Benefit is Payable
Benefit may be paid either from the date of the accident, or
after a certain period following the accident (waiting period), or
from the date of the accident provided that the incapacity has
lasted more than a certain number of days. The provisions made
hy national schemes in this respect vary considerably, but more
than two-thirds of them fix a waiting period of three to ten days.
The idea of a waiting period seems to be in contradiction with
the principle of occupational risk, which requires that compensation should begin from the moment when the loss occurs, that
is, the loss of earnings owing to incapacity. A large number of
schemes contain this provision with a view to discouraging malingerers by making them bear the loss of earnings due to slight
accidents. The provision is also designed to reduce the burden
that employers would otherwise have to bear on account of the
many small accidents that do not really cause serious loss.
There is room for considerable doubt as to whether the waiting
period is really effective in preventing abuses. However, since
provision is made for such a period in a great number of schemes,
— 33 —
the Conference left the States free to decide whether they would
introduce or maintain a waiting period, but it limited the length
of the period by providing that compensation should be paid not
later than as from the fifth day after the accident (Convention,
Article 6).
Minimum
Amount of Benefit
The fixing of the amount of cash benefit is an essential factor
in any compensation legislation, both for the workers whose rights
are thus made clear and for the employers whose liability and
expenditure are thereby determined. It is no less important for
the International Labour Organisation, which aims, so far as
possible, at equalising the financial burden which the application
of legislation concerning workmen's compensation for accidents
lays on different States.
There are, however, considerable difficulties to be met in fixing
an international minimum scale of benefit, owing to the diversity
of the provisions made in national schemes. These, as has already
been pointed out, may stipulate the payment of pensions expressed
as percentages of the injured person's earnings or that of lump
sums expressed as multiples of such earnings. Both the percentages
and the multiples vary considerably. The difficulty is increased
by the fact that a large number of national schemes limit the basic
wage on which benefit is calculated and specify other limits which
the benefit may in no case exceed. Clearly, even in the case of
accidents of equal seriousness, the application of the same percentages or the same multiples of earnings would yield very
different results according as the limits of earnings or those of
benefit were high or low. These limits, which are fixed arbitrarily
in each country with reference to the level of wages or the cost
of living and the purchasing power of the national currency, are
not comparable inter se, and it would be very difficult to find a
common scale which would be acceptable internationally.
After going into the question carefully, the Office in the first
place and subsequently the Conference came to the conclusion
t h a t if definite rules were proposed concerning the minimum amount
of cash benefit, there would not be the necessary majority (twothirds of the delegates to the Conference) for the adoption of the
Convention, and that accordingly any attempt to settle this
question internationally should take the form of a Recommendation.
The Recommendation urges t h a t the rates of compensation for
3
— 34 —
accidents involving incapacity for work payable under national
schemes should not be lower than the following:
(1) In the case of permanent total incapacity, a periodical
payment equivalent to two-thirds of the workman's annual
earnings ;
(2) In case of permanent partial incapacity, a proportion
of the periodical payment due in the event of permanent
total incapacity calculated in reference to the reduction of
earning power caused by the injury;
(3) In case of temporary total incapacity, a daily or weekly
payment equivalent to two-thirds of the workman's basic
earnings as calculated for purposes of compensation;
(4) In case of temporary partial incapacity, a proportion of the
daily or weekly payment payable in the case of temporary
total incapacity calculated in reference to the reduction of
earning power caused by the injury (Recommendation,
section I, paragraph 1).
Additional Compensation in the Event of Incapacity
involving Constant Attendance
When the incapacity caused by an accident necessitates the
constant attendance of another person, the loss is considerably
increased. Not only does the injured person lose all or nearly all
his earnings, but his incapacity involves him in considerable
additional expenditure for the remuneration of the person whose
constant attendance he requires.
At present the right to additional compensation is recognised
in only about fifteen national laws and regulations. Nevertheless,
as the number of cases concerned is small and they are particularly
deserving, the Conference held that the practice of granting additional benefit should be extended to all countries, and it inserted
in the Draft Convention a general rule to the effect that additional
compensation should be provided for persons suffering from
incapacity of such a nature that they must have the constant help
of another person (Convention, Article 7).
Further, in the Recommendation concerning the minimum scale
of compensation, the Conference stated that, in the case of an
injury involving the constant help of another person, the workman
should receive additional compensation, which should not be less
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than half the amount payable in the case of permanent total
incapacity (Recommendation, section II).
CASH BENEFITS FOR FATAL ACCIDENTS
A fatal accident entails an economic loss for the persons who
were dependent on the victim, or who might in certain circumstances
have claimed pecuniary assistance from him, and even for those
who would have inherited any money he might have saved if the
accident had not occurred.
The amount of benefit may therefore be fixed with reference to
two different conceptions: that of the loss suffered by the heirsat-law, and that of the needs of the persons who were economically
dependent upon the deceased workman.
In the first case, the amount of compensation bears a direct
relation to the age and earnings of the victim, and this is true
whatever the number, the degree of relationship, or the economic
situation of the heirs.
In the second case, the amount of compensation is fixed with
reference to the extent of the pecuniary assistance which the heirs
received or might have received, that is, on the one hand, with
reference to the victim's age and earnings and, on the other hand,
to the number of persons economically dependent upon him, their
age and their needs.
The factors which appear in both systems are the victim's age
and the rate of his earnings. These determine to a very great
extent not only the financial assistance which the dependants
might have expected, but also the amount which the victim might
have saved had the accident not occurred.
In practice, most of the existing schemes apply both the principle
of compensating the loss suffered and that of economic dependence.
Sometimes, for purposes of determining the classes of dependants
entitled to compensation, the total amount of compensation, and
its distribution among the dependants, they lay more emphasis
on the first principle, and sometimes on the second.
The Office and the Conference found that national schemes
contained an even greater variety of solutions to the problem of
compensation for fatal accidents than to that of compensation for
accidents followed by incapacity. They therefore did not think it
possible to include in the Convention any definite provision as
regards the compensation due to survivors of deceased victims.
— 36 —
In agreement with the Office, the Conference decided to refer
in the Recommendation on the one hand to those categories of
dependants whose right to compensation should at least be
recognised in national schemes, and on the other hand to the
fixing of a minimum aggregate amount of compensation to be
divided among the survivors.
Definition of Dependants
National schemes usually make a distinction between two
classes of dependants entitled to compensation.
The first class always includes the consort (widow or widower)
and the deceased person's children below a certain age, who, in
application of the principle that the economic loss suffered must
be compensated, are not required to prove their economic dependence.
The second class usually includes the grandchildren, brothers
and sisters, and ascendants of the deceased person, who are
required to show proof of their economic dependence, in application
of the principle of need.
National schemes apply the principle of need in the case of
children by fixing an age limit above which they are no longer
entitled to compensation because it is supposed that they are able
to work for their living. This age limit varies according to country
from 14 to 22 years, but it is usually fixed at 15, 16 or 18 years.
The Conference recommended that the consort (widow or
widower) and the deceased person's children under 18 years of
age should be considered as entitled to compensation without
reference to their economic dependence. The age limit of 18 years
was selected as being most suitable to the children's requirements
in regard to physical, intellectual and vocational development.
Further, the Conference recommended that there should be no
age limit in the case of children who owing to physical or mental
infirmity are incapable of earning (Recommendation, section III,
paragraph 1).
In nearly all national schemes the conditions on which other
classes of dependants are entitled to compensation are based on
the principle of economic dependence. The ascendants, grandchildren, and orphan brothers or sisters, must show that they
were dependent upon the deceased person, are incapable of earning
owing to age or infirmity and, finally, are without means of
subsistence.
— 37 —
In view of present conditions under many national schemes,
the Conference recommended that the following should also be
recognised as dependants entitled to compensation:
1. The deceased person's ascendants, provided that they are
without means of subsistence and were dependent on the
deceased or the deceased was under an obligation to
contribute towards their maintenance;
2. The deceased person's grandchildren and brothers and
sisters, if below 18 years of age, or above that age if, by
reason of physical or mental infirmity, they are incapable
of earning, and if they are orphans, or if their parents,
though still living, are incapable of providing for them
(Recommendation, section III, paragraph 1).
Minimum Aggregate Amount of Compensation
Most national schemes provide that the aggregate amount of
compensation to be divided among all the survivors, whatever
their number, their relationship, or their degree of economic
dependence, may not exceed a certain limit expressed as a fraction
of the deceased person's earnings when compensation takes the
form of a pension or as a multiple of such earnings when it takes
the form of a lump sum.
The fraction of the deceased person's earnings which may not
be exceeded by the total of the pensions or allowances paid to
the different dependants usually varies from one-half to twothirds; it is most often equal to two-thirds. The Conference therefore recommended that, where compensation is paid by means of
periodical payments, the maximum total of the yearly sum payable
to all tbe dependants should not be less than two-thirds of the
deceased person's annual earnings (Recommendation, section III,
paragraph 2).
Further, the Conference was of opinion that in the case of
compensation for a fatal accident, as in that of compensation for
an accident followed by incapacity, some relation must be established between compensation in the form of a pension and that in
the form of a lump sum. It therefore recommended that where
compensation is paid in a lump sum, the maximum sum payable
to all the dependants should not be less than the capitalised value
of periodical payments equivalent to two-thirds of the deceased
person's annual earnings (Recommendation, section III, paragraph 3).
— 38 —
§ 4. — Benefits in Kind
MEDICAL, SURGICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL A I D
Even when industrial accidents do not cause permanent incapacity for work, they nearly always involve medical treatment the
purpose of which is to maintain so far as possible the physical
integrity of the injured or sick persons and to cure or reduce such
incapacity as might be caused by the injuries. The organisation
of medical aid is therefore of primary importance for the injured
person, who wishes to be cured and to recover his capacity for
work. It is equally important for the employer and the insurer,
whose expenses will be less according as the final incapacity is less
serious and lasts a shorter time. It is also important for the
community, which is interested in maintaining as large a productive labour force as possible and in reducing the social burden
due to the existence of unproductive disabled persons. It is therefore not surprising to find t h a t in most countries medical and
pharmaceutical aid is considered to be a normal feature in compensation; the injured person has a right to it and the employer
or insurer is expected to provide it.
Without going into details of organisation, which are closely
connected with national conditions, the Conference thought it
necessary to state that the victims of industrial accidents should
be entitled to medical aid and to such surgical and pharmaceutical
aid as is recognised to be necessary in consequence of accidents.
The cost of such aid should be defrayed either by the employer,
by accident insurance institutions, or by sickness or invalidity
insurance institutions (Convention, Article 9).
SUPPLY AND RENEWAL OF ARTIFICIAL LIMBS AND SURGICAL
APPLIANCES
Many victims of accidents are unable owing to their injuries to
engage in any productive occupation without the help of artificial
limbs or surgical appliances. Like medical, surgical and pharmaceutical aid, the supply and renewal of such limbs and appliances
are therefore of great importance to the worker, the employer or
insurer, and the community.
Nevertheless, as a general rule
national schemes do not provide injured persons with artificial
limbs and surgical appliances except for curative purposes.
— 39 —
It must in fact be recognised that the supply, repair, and
permanent renewal of such appliances raises considerable dimculties
of organisation in States where insurance is not compulsory and
in those where insurance, although compulsory, is not administered
by powerful institutions covering the whole of the country.
In the course of the discussion in Conference, it was suggested
that a payment in the form of an annual allowance might be
substituted for the supply and renewal of artificial limbs and
surgical appliances when compensation takes the form of a pension,
or that the capital amount might be proportionately increased
when compensation takes the form of a lump sum. But this
proposal was severely criticised on the ground that it might lead
to abuse and that the amounts, which were likely to be considerable,
especially when compensation took the form of a lump sum, might
be unwisely spent.
The Conference decided on the one hand to affirm the right of
the victims of industrial accidents to the supply and normal
renewal at the employer's or insurer's expense of such artificial
limbs and surgical appliances as are recognised to be necessary.
On the other hand it admitted that in exceptional circumstances,
when the difficulties of organisation seem too great, the supply
and renewal of such limbs and appliances might be replaced by
the award to the injured workman of a sum representing the
probable cost of the supply and renewal, this sum to be decided
at the time when the amount of compensation is settled or revised
(Convention, Article 10).
VOCATIONAL RE-EDUCATION
Many victims of accidents are unable, owing to their injuries,
to engage in productive work unless they have undergone a
course of vocational re-education.
Although the importance of vocational re-education was not
disputed, the question had been investigated before the war only
in an elementary way, and the experiments made had been on a
small scale. Moreover, there had been no attempt to put the
disabled in a position to compete on the general labour market,
but only to give them an occupation in workshops or curative
establishments subsidised by private persons or by the State.
The provision of work for disabled persons was considered as of
only subsidiary importance and as a higher form of social assistance.
The world war suddenly increased the number of disabled
— 40 —
persons by some ten million men, usually young and for the most
part wage earners. In order to save them from the despair which
is frequently caused by involuntary idleness and to provide the
addition to their resources which was necessary owing to the low
rates of pension payable by the States, and, further, in order to
maintain for each country the productive activity of so large a
labour force, Governments and Parliaments were compelled to
consider the problem of the rehabilitation of persons disabled
during the war. Everywhere the best methods of restoring the
disabled to an active life were investigated. Vocational re-education
ceased to be empirical and acquired a science and technique of
its own. In every country, hundreds of re-education centres,
schools and workshops were opened with the assistance of the
State and of the employers' and workers' organisations.
This technical and scientific advance was accompanied by legal
and legislative progress. Vocational re-education came to be
considered as a normal factor in compensation. The State was
held liable to provide it, and the persons disabled during the war
were considered to be entitled to it.
The results of this immense effort have led to much controversy.
Yet on the whole the work has been fruitful. Hundreds of thousands
of men have been able to learn a new trade. It has now been proved
that with rational equipment and systematic re-education, a great
many disabled persons are capable of an output which does not
differ greatly from that of an able-bodied workman, provided that
they have been given proper guidance in the choice of a new
occupation.
It is therefore quite natural that the idea of extending the
benefits of vocational re-education to the victims of industrial
accidents should have been entertained; but, while many plans
have been made with this end in view, few have been put into
effect. Often enough, workmen's compensation legislation makes
no reference to vocational re-education. The victims of industrial
accidents have no right to such re-education, and employers or
insurers are under no obligation to provide it.
The question of vocational re-education was raised at the
Conference, and delegates were unanimous in recognising its importance. But differences of opinion arose when an attempt was made
to include in the Draft Convention a clause stating that disabled
persons were entitled to vocational re-education at the expense
.of the employer or the insurer. Some delegates pointed out that,
if the employer or the insurer had to bear the cost of vocational
— 41 —
re-education, the purpose of which was to reduce the extent of
the injury, he should be entitled to claim that the result of vocational
re-education and the increased earning capacity to which it gives
rise should be taken into account when the degree of incapacity is
determined and the final compensation or pension is fixed.
This would involve the rather serious disadvantage of leaving the
rights of injured persons in suspense for several years in some cases.
Further, it might arouse suspicion among the workers in regard to
these new factors in compensation. Injured persons would hesitate
to accept re-education, which they would tend to consider as an
attempt to reduce the amount of their cash benefit.
In order to meet this objection, some delegates proposed making
the State bear the cost of vocational re-education, it being clearly
stated that the increased earning capacity produced by vocational
re-education should in no case serve as an argument for reducing
the amount of the cash benefit.
Since no agreement could be reached, the Conference did not
think it expedient to make any reference to vocational re-education
in the Convention. It merely recommended that the vocational
re-education of injured workmen should be provided by such
means as the national laws or regulations deem most suitable,
and that Governments should encourage institutions which undertake such re-education (Recommendation, Section IV)
§ 5. — Guarantees
It is not enough to declare that the victim of an occupational
accident and his dependants are entitled to compensation and to
fix the amount of that compensation. Measures must also be taken
to ensure that the compensation for which provision is made shall
be regularly paid, even if the person liable for such payment should
become insolvent. Compensation for industrial accidents is in the
nature of an allowance for necessaries, and the same reasons which
give rise to compensation make it necessary in the public interest
that it should be paid. Legislation should therefore provide an
effective system of guarantees in favour of beneficiaries.
At the Conference, owing to the unequal progress made in this
matter by national legislations, and owing also to the diversity
of the technical solutions that can be contemplated, the discussion
of the problem of guarantees was certainly most arduous.
Broadly speaking, the various guarantee systems may be reduced
to four:
— 42 —
1. The victim's claim or that of his dependants ranks as a prior
charge on the assets of the employer or insurer;
2. The employer deposits with the State fund, or a fund supervised by the State, security in the form of mortgages, stocks
and shares, cash, etc., sufficient in amount to ensure the
payment of the total compensation for which he may be
liable in respect to accidents occurring in his undertaking;
3.
A guarantee fund administered by the State and constituted
by a direct or indirect tax on employers as a whole or on
insured employers;
4. Compulsory insurance of employers, either with a national
fund administered by the State, or with private insurance
companies or mutual associations, supervised by the State.
Practically all the delegates to the Conference held that the
first guarantee system, that of a prior charge on the employer's
assets, was inadequate, since in the event of bankruptcy or the
disappearance of the undertaking, the assets might be nil.
The second system entails the serious disadvantage, of locking
up sums, which may be considerable, as cover for any payments
that may have to be made to injured persons or their dependants.
Nevertheless, a sufficient majority could not be found for the
Office proposal that the Convention should make provision for a
' compulsory guarantee against the employers' or the insurers'
insolvency, either in the form of a guarantee fund or in that of
compulsory insurance.
After lengthy discussion, the Conference adopted a text specifying that the national laws or regulations shall make such provision
as, having regard to national circumstances, is deemed most
suitable for ensuring, in all circumstances, in the event of the
insolvency of the employer or insurer, the payment of compensation
to workmen who suffer personal injury due to industrial accidents,
or in case of death, to their dependants (Convention, Article 11).
§ 6. — Settlement of Disputes
Disputes concerning workmen's compensation arise not only out
of the interpretation of laws and regulations, but also out of
occupational questions which call for a thorough knowledge of
working conditions, such as the nature of the undertaking, the
kind of risks inherent in it, the connection between the worker's
— 43 —
employment and the accident, the method of computing earnings,
the degree of incapacity for work, his possibility of adapting
himself to some other occupation, etc.
Clearly, employers and workers have a more thorough knowledge
of working conditions than anyone else, and when they are members
of, or are associated with, the courts which have to decide disputes
in regard to workmen's compensation for accidents, more equitable
decisions can be reached.
The Conference was convinced that this argument was both
sound and significant; it was of opinion that in many countries
the association of employers and workers with the courts could be
secured without departing radically from the existing judicial
system, and it therefore adopted a Recommendation concerning
jurisdiction in disputes on workmen's compensation.
In the first part of the Recommendation, the Conference was
careful to lay down the principle that disputes 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 (Recommendation, section I).
But having regard to the fact that at the present time disputes
relating to workmen's compensation are in many countries dealt
with by the ordinary courts of law, the Conference recommended
that in such cases the courts should 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 (Recommendation,
section II).
§ 7. — Equality of Treatment for National and Foreign Workers
If the principle of occupational risk is adopted, the right to
compensation for industrial accidents ought not to be affected
either by the nationality or by the place of residence of the injured
persons and their dependants. Nevertheless, national laws do
contain restrictions, though these are becoming fewer, either in
the case of foreign workers who leave the country in which the
accident occurred or in that of their dependants who are not
resident in the country at the time of the accident or do not
continue to reside there.
44 —
After having considered the question in 1924 and 1925, the
Conference adopted a special Draft Convention, the purpose of
which is to introduce a system of reciprocity in favour of the
nationals of States Members. Each State which ratifies the Convention undertakes to grant to the nationals of any other State
which has also ratified the Convention, who suffer personal injury
due to industrial accidents happening in its territory, or to their
dependants, the same treatment in respect to workmen's compensation as it grants to its own nationals. This equality of
treatment should be guaranteed without any condition as to
residence.
A Recommendation, likewise adopted in 1925, deals with the
measures which are calculated to facilitate the application of this
principle of equality of treatment.
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CHAPTER II
SICKNESS INSURANCE
INTRODUCTION
The international regulations concerning sickness insurance
consist of two Draft Conventions and one Recommendation, all
adopted by the Conference at its Tenth Session in 1927, namely:
Draft Convention concerning sickness insurance for workers in
industry and commerce and domestic servants;
Draft Convention concerning sickness insurance for agricultural
workers ;
Recommendation concerning the general principles of sickness
insurance.
The terms of the two Draft Conventions are similar. They lay
down the minimum requirements which any sickness insurance
scheme must fulfil at the outset. The obligations which the Draft
Conventions lay upon ratifying States are therefore fairly limited.
They indicate the minimum level below which the efficiency of a
sickness insurance scheme would not appear to be guaranteed.
The Recommendation is more substantial and it gives expression,
in the fo:m of general principles, to the results of an international
experience already lengthy, and to the tendencies of modern
sickness insurance as the principal means of protecting the health
of the workers and society.
§ 1. — The Principle of Compulsory Sickness Insurance
The decisions of the Conference constitute an international
confirmation of the social value of the principle of compulsory
insurance. Looking back on national experiences over half a
century, the Conference recognised t h a t compulsory sickness
insurance provides the best means of constantly and systematically
applying provident measures to obviate or make good any loss of
the workers' productive efficiency. Accordingly it placed the
— 46 —
principle of compulsory insurance at the forefront of both Draft
Conventions. Each Member which ratifies the Convention undertakes to set up a system of compulsory sickness insurance based
on provisions at least equivalent to those stipulated by the Conference (Conventions, Article 1).
§ 2. — Scope
The scope of compulsory sickness insurance laws and regulations
is usually defined in very general terms, mainly with reference to
the contract of employment, without any limitations or conditions
based on the nature of the occupation or undertaking. They are
definitely intended to cover wage earners as a whole, or at least all
those of small means. This aim was taken into account by the
Conference, which recommended that sickness insurance should
include within its scope, without discrimination as to age or sex,
every person who performs work by way of his occupation and
under a contract of service or apprenticeship (Recommendation,
paragraph 1).
In adopting this Recommendation, the Conference recognised
that all wage earners, whatever the nature of their economic
activity or the occupational category to which they belong, need
the protection of insurance, and it was only in order to facilitate
ratification and application that it drew up two Draft Conventions
concerning compulsory insurance, the one applying to manual and
non-manual workers, including apprentices, employed by industrial
and commercial undertakings, outworkers and domestic servants,
and the other applying to manual and non-manual workers,
including apprentices, employed by agricultural undertakings
(Conventions, Article 2, paragraph 1).
As already pointed out, the provisions of the two Conventions
are identical. While adopting a special Convention for agricultural
workers, the Conference was careful to respect the principle of the
equality of the rights of industrial and agricultural workers.
Consequently it recognised exactly the same rights in both cases,
leaving it to national laws and regulations to decide, within the
limits of the decisions taken by the Conference, the conditions under
which the Conventions should be applied, and in particular the
adjustments necessary in the case of agricultural workers. At the
same time, the Conference did not propose, either for industry and
commerce or for agriculture, that the general principle of compulsory
sickness insurance should be accepted as a universal rule allowing
— 47 —
of no restrictions or exceptions. Since it was anxious to make
constructive proposals, such as could be fully and immediately
applied, the Conference made allowance for practical contingencies
and left it open to each State Member to make such exceptions in
its national laws or regulations as it deemed necessary in respect
of certain categories of wage earners, to be specified in a list.
Among the possible criteria for narrowing the scope of compulsory
insurance accepted by the Conference were the amount of the
worker's remuneration, in some cases the method of remuneration,
and the worker's age.
According to the Draft Conventions, exemption from compulsory
insurance may be allowed in respect of workers whose wages or
income exceed an amount to be determined by national laws or
regulations (Conventions, Article 2, paragraph 2 (b)). If such
exemption is considered necessary in national laws and regulations,
the Conference recommended that the exceptions should only apply
to workers whose earnings or income are such that they may
reasonably be expected to make their own provision for sickness
(Recommendation, paragraph 2).
Under the Draft Conventions, exemption from compulsory
insurance may further be granted to workers below or above
age-limits to be determined by national laws or regulations
(Conventions, Article 2, paragraph 2 (e)). Here again, the Conference made it clear in its Recommendation that such age-limits as
might be fixed in national laws and regulations should not apply
to young persons who cannot normally be considered as dependent
upon their family or to workers who have not reached the pensionable age and cannot do without the protection of sickness msurance.
In other words, it is recommended that States Members should not
make exceptions with reference to age-limits unless the workers
above or below such limits are already protected by law or otherwise
(Recommendation, paragraph 2).
Other exceptions mentioned in the Draft Conventions refer to
outworkers whose conditions of work are not of a like nature to
those of ordinary wage earners and members of the employer's
family. Exceptions may also be made in favour of persons engaged
in special kinds of employment enumerated in the Draft Conventions: temporary employment, casual employment not for the
purpose of the employer's trade or business, occasional employment,
and subsidiary employment.
This list of authorised exceptions may seem long and likely to
weaken the general formula of compulsory insurance for wage
— 48 —
earners. Happily, experience has shown that this is not so. In
fact, the groups and occupations which are exempted in countries
where the Conventions apply form only a fairly small percentage
of the total wage-earning population. Moreover, improvements
in the administrative practice of insurance institutions are steadily
reducing the gaps in the scope of compulsory insurance.
Owing to the division of work between the general and the
maritime Sessions of the Conference, seamen and fishermen were
not covered by the decisions taken in 1927. Compulsory sickness
insurance for seamen was, however, the subject of a first discussion
during the Thirteenth Session of the Conference in October 1929,
and the Office has prepared a proposed Draft Convention with
•which the Conference will probably deal at a Maritime Session in
1936, when shipowners' liability towards sick or injured seamen
will also come up for regulation.
§ 3. — Cash Benefit
An insured person who is unable to work owing to sickness
loses his wages and the insurance institution must pay him benefit
to make up for all or part of the earnings lost. This subsistence
allowance is essential to the maintenance of the sick person and
his family. The function of compensation must always be one of
the main features of sickness insurance.
The value of a system of cash benefits depends chiefly on three
factors: the conditions on which benefit is granted, the amount
of benefit, and the period of benefit.
Conditions on which Benefit is Granted
According to the Draft Conventions, an insured person who is
rendered incapable of work by reason of the abnormal state of
his bodily or mental health should be entitled to benefit (Conventions, Article 3, paragraph 1). In the vast majority of cases,
and especially among manual workers, this incapacity involves a
loss of wages, and it is the object of sickness insurance to remedy
the consequences of this loss.
There is no urgent need for the payment of benefit so long as
the sick person's maintenance is not threatened, either because he
receives, in respect of the same illness, compensation from another
source to which he is entitled by law, or because he does not by
the fact of his incapacity suffer any loss of the normal product
— 49 —
of his labour, or because he is maintained at the expense of the
insurance funds or from public funds. In such cases, the Draft
Conventions declare that cash benefit may be withheld in order
to avoid duplication or overlapping (Conventions*, Article 3,
paragraph 3 (a) and (b)).
Further, the payment of benefit may be made conditional
upon the insured person having first complied with a qualifying
period and, on the expiry of the same, with a waiting period of
not more than three days (Conventions, Article 3, paragraph 2).
The Conference thus provided for the possibility of introducing a
probationary period and recognised the fairness of the demand that
insurance funds should be relieved of the obligation to pay benefit
for short illnesses, the consequences of which could be met by
insured persons out of their own resources. The majority of the
Conference was not in favour of making insured persons feel too
secure by relieving them of any economic responsibility whatsoever
even for very short interruptions in their work. Without imposing
a waiting period, the Conference confirmed the utility of such a
period, while fixing at not more than three the number of days
which might be specified in national laws and regulations. It
maintained this maximum period of three days, suggested by the
Office, in the face of other proposals, some of which aimed at
suppressing any waiting period whatever, while others were
designed to extend the period beyond the first three days of
incapacity. The Conference was however of the opinion that a
three-day waiting period was neither too burdensome for the sick
persons nor too short to prevent abuse.
Amount of Benefit
In regard to the amount of benefit, the Conference was faced
with two different conceptions of the function of benefit. According
to the first, the benefit is intended to enable a sick person to
maintain his usual standard of living, and it must therefore be
fixed in relation to his wages. According to the second, the benefit
is intended only to secure a strict minimum of subsistence during
the period of incapacity, and it should therefore be fixed at a
flat rate for all insured persons, irrespective of their earnings.
Only the system of benefit varying with wages can secure that the
sick person will be relieved in proportion to his resources and
standard of living. That is why it has been adopted in most
compulsory insurance schemes, and in particular all recently
enacted laws.
4
— 50 —
When, however, the Conference refrained from inserting in the
Draft Conventions any strict rule concerning the amount of benefit,
it did so in a spirit of conciliation and in order to facilitate ratification by States which objected to any definite undertaking as
to the rate of the benefit to be granted. But while the Draft
Conventions do not specify any particular method of fixing the
amount of sickness benefit, the Recommendation shows the views
held by the great majority of the Conference delegates. It states
that if a sick person is to recover his health as early as possible,
the cash benefit should be adequate and should ordinarily be a
substantial proportion of the insured person's wages, regard being
had to family responsibilities. It is only in very special circumstances and when the persons to whom compulsory insurance
applies have facilities for taking out an additional insurance and
are in the habit of doing so that it may be appropriate, according
to the Recommendation, to fix the statutory benefit independently
of the insured person's wages (Recommendation, paragraph 3).
Period of Benefit
As provided in most national schemes, the minimum period for
which benefit is payable in respect of any one illness is fixed in
the Draft Conventions at twenty-six weeks from the first day for
which benefit is payable (Conventions, Article 3, paragraph 1).
The twenty-six-week limit is, however, a minimum acceptable
only when the prolongation of cover is secured by the existence
of an invalidity insurance scheme. The Conference made the
necessary connection between sickness insurance and invalidity
insurance quite clear in its Recommendation, where it stated that
the period for which benefit is payable should be increased from
twenty-six weeks to one year in cases of serious and chronic illness
and for insured persons who will not receive any invalidity benefit
on the expiry of their right to sickness benefit (Recommendation,
paragraph 4).
§ 4. — Benefits in Kind
MEDICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL AID
When sickness insurance funds were first set up, their main
purpose was to pay sick persons who were unable to remain
at work a cash benefit, and they paid comparatively little
attention to medical treatment. Slowly but steadily their views
— 51 —
have changed and their work has taken a new turn. The principal
object is now to restore health and working capacity, and first
place is therefore given to medical, surgical and pharmaceutical
benefits. The function of compensation is giving way to that of
restoration. In most insurance schemes, the expenditure on
benefits in kind is equal to that on cash benefits, and even exceeds
it in some countries where special importance is attached to the
quality of the medical treatment given to insured persons.
The Conference clearly stipulated that all insured persons should
have a right to medical and pharmaceutical aid, and that the insurance institutions of States Members ratifying the Draft Conventions
should not be entitled to make the grant of such aid conditional
upon the observance of a qualifying period or even of a waiting
period, however short. Under the Draft Conventions, an insured
person is entitled free of charge, as from the commencement of his
illness and at least until the period prescribed for the grant of
sickness benefit expires, to medical treatment by a fully qualified
medical man and to the supply of proper and sufficient medicines
and appliances (Conventions, Article 4, paragraph 1).
The principle that medical and pharmaceutical aid shall be
supplied free of charge does not, however, exclude the possibility
that the insured person may be required to pay part of the cost of
such benefit. This is explicitly stated in the Draft Conventions
(Conventions, Article 4, paragraph 2).
The Conference went further than merely drawing up a minimum
programme of medical and pharmaceutical aid which any compulsory sickness insurance scheme ought to provide at the outset for
all insured persons. In the light of those tendencies which have in
practice proved most conducive to an efficient and rational
organisation of medical aid, the Conference described in its Recommendation the manner in which the curative activity of sickness
insurance institutions should be developed as quickly as possible:
in addition to treatment by a fully qualified doctor, there should be
available for the insured person facilities for specialist services,
as well as dental treatment, and for treatment in hospital, where
his family circumstances necessitate it or his illness requires a mode
of treatment which can only be given in a hospital (Recommendation, paragraph 8).
In other words, without attempting to enforce a strict rule,
the Conference laid stress on the importance of affording insured
persons the best treatment possible in the present state of medical
science and technique.
— 52 —
A t the same time, the Conference was careful to emphasise the
need for developing the work of insurance funds in the field of
sickness prevention. In the Recommendation, it drew attention
to the far-reaching results which may be obtained by alert and
systematic prevention, and, while urging that no effort should be
spared in combating social diseases, it pointed to the necessity
for co-ordinating the often scattered activities of public health
services, sickness insurance funds and social welfare associations
(Recommendation, paragraph 12).
MEDICAL B E N E F I T FOR THE INSURED PERSON'S FAMILY
Sickness insurance is becoming a family matter, and this is one
of the most interesting aspects of its evolution. Workers have
to meet additional expenses not only when they themselves are
sick, but also when their wives or children fall ill and the health
of the whole household is in danger.
The movement in favour of extending medical benefit to the
worker's family was at first confined to a few countries, but it
has gradually spread. Yet although most countries with compulsory
/ickness insurance grant medical aid to the families of insured
persons, it is not always a statutory and compulsory benefit like
medical treatment for the insured persons themselves. Since the
Conference could not go so far as to insist on it in all circumstances,
it merely recalled t h a t such assistance could most easily be
organised under sickness insurance schemes, and the Draft Conventions state t h a t the grant of medical benefit to members of an
insured person's family may be authorised or even prescribed by
national laws and regulations (Conventions, Article 5).
In order t o show its interest in having the practice of granting
family benefit made general, t h e Conference went one step further.
In the Recommendation, it not edthat medical benefit for the insured
person's family promotes good conditions for the maintenance in
health of t h e insured person and his family, and therefore urged
t h a t it should be furnished as and when it may be possible and practicable to do so (Recommendation, paragraph 10).
It follows from all these decisions t h a t in the opinion of the
Conference sickness insurance should accept responsibility for
protecting t h e health of the worker's family and taking all necessary
curative and preventive measures.
— 53 —
ORGANISATION OF MEDICAL SERVICE
According to the Draft Conventions insured persons are entitled,
at the expense of the sickness insurance institution, to medical
treatment by a fully qualified medical man (Conventions, Article 4,
paragraph 1). This stipulation makes the institutions responsible for
providing any medical treatment the insured persons may require.
They have to organise their medical service with reference to the
needs of the insured persons, whom they must provide with facilities
for consulting duly qualified practitioners.
The growing importance of benefits in kind and their gradual
extension to the families of insured persons call for a corresponding
development of the medical service of sickness insurance schemes.
The problems raised by the operation of such medical services must
be solved by combining the principles of efficiency and rational
economy that are fundamental to insurance.
The Conference did not consider it expedient when dealing the
first time with the problem of sickness insurance as a whole, at its
1927 Session, to attempt forthwith to draw up a general and
comprehensive scheme for the organisation of the medical service
in sickness insurance. It decided, however, that the Recommendation should settle certain important points in regard to which a
considerable measure of international agreement seemed possible.
In the first place, it recommended that insurance institutions
should be empowered to avail themselves, on equitable conditions,
of the services of such doctors as they need (Recommendation,
paragraph 11). This declaration brings out both the special
nature and the essential characteristic of the medical service in a
sickness insurance scheme which has been instituted for the
benefit of persons of small means and which must exercise judgment
in the use made of its limited resources. Insurance institutions
must in any event secure the co-operation of the medical profession ;
they ought to be able to secure it on terms which recognise the fact
that they are bodies organised in the public interest and for purposes
of social protection.
Another feature which the Conference wished to emphasise was
the right of the insured person to choose his own doctor. The
Conference did not lose sight of the fact that persons covered by a
social insurance scheme may, like private clients, prefer to choose
the doctor to whom they will turn for medical treatment and
advice. While recognising that they ought to be allowed to choose
a medical adviser whom they can trust, the Conference was careful
— 54 —
to point out the conditions limiting this choice of a doctor under a
compulsory insurance scheme. It held that the sick person should
be able to choose only among the doctors who are at the disposal
of the insurance institution on equitable conditions, as prescribed
by law or by agreement between the doctors and the insurance
institutions. The Conference also considered that the right of
choice should be conditional upon the avoidance of any considerable extra expense to the institution. Moreover, on practical
grounds, it indicated that there could be no question of giving a
right of choice to insured persons outside urban centres and
specified geographical limits (Recommendation, paragraph 11).
The Conference did not go into the matter of medical fees, but
the precautions it took to protect insurance institutions against
exaggerated demands show that it was aware of the need for
organising the medical service of insurance institutions on rational
and economical lines.
§ 5. — Insurance Institutions
The Conference had to consider the rules which should govern
the organisation and management of insurance institutions.
The consultation of Governments before the 1927 Session had
shown that funds organised on the territorial principle were.
preferable to any other type of insurance institution. The advantages of territorial grouping were mentioned, such as better balancing of risks, greater stability of membership, a more rational basis
for the organisation of the medical service, and simplicity in
operation and control. Thus there was a considerable measure of
agreement in favour of territorial funds.
Nevertheless, owing to the great variety of the conditions prevailing in different countries and the fact that funds of different
kinds are still frequently to be found operating side by side in the
same country, the Conference refrained from imposing a definite
obligation as to the kind of fund to be selected. It clearly did not
wish to interfere with existing conditions in the several countries,
or to hinder the operation of funds organised on other than
territorial lines.
On the other hand, it could not omit all reference to the undoubted
advantages of territorial funds, particularly as regards the rational
organisation of medical aid. It therefore drew attention to the
superiority which it attributed to such funds by stating that a good
organisation of medical benefit and, in particular, the efficient
— 55 —
provision and utilisation of medical equipment embodying the
results of scientific progress can be most easily secured by
concentrating action on a territorial basis (Recommendation,
paragraph 14).
The institutions responsible for the administration of compulsory
insurance perform functions which are of public interest. They
should therefore be managed with a view to that public interest
alone and not for profit. States which ratify the Draft Conventions
give a strict undertaking in this respect (Convention, Article 6,
paragraph 1).
As regards the way in which insurance institutions should be
managed, the system of self-government by the persons concerned,
proposed by the Office, received almost unanimous approval, and
there was no opposition to the clause stipulating that sickness
insurance should be administered by self-governing institutions
under the supervision of the public authority (Conventions,
Article 6, paragraph 1).
The Conference thus made a clear-cut distinction between the
management of insurance institutions, which on the principle of
self-government should be in the nantis of those directly interested
in the operation of insurance institutions, and their supervision,
which is entrusted to the public authority. While clearly stating
the principle of self-government for insurance institutions, the
Conference did not overlook the fact that in certain circumstances
it may be difficult to secure full self-government in the initial stages
of a compulsory insurance scheme before social and occupational
organisation has been fully developed. Accordingly it made
provision for a temporary exception to the general principle of
self-government by the parties concerned in the clause that the
administration may nevertheless be undertaken directly by the
State where and as long as administration by self-governing
institutions is rendered difficult or impossible or merely inappropriate by reason of the insufficient development of the employers'
and workers' organisations (Conventions, Article 6, paragraph 3).
As regards the share in the management of insurance institutions
which should be allotted to the parties directly interested in the
results of operation, in particular the workers' and employers'
organisations, the Conference had to consider a series of proposals
to amend the original scheme suggested by the Office, under which
the insured persons would have at least half the voting power on the
administrative bodies of the insurance institutions. This was
opposed by some of the workers' delegates, who wished the
— 56 —
representatives of the insured persons to be in a majority on such
bodies, and it was rejected by the Conference, which also defeated
an amendment to establish a direct relation between the share in
the expenses of insurance and the share in management. The
Conference did not see fit to go further than to state in the Draft
Conventions that insured persons should participate in the management of insurance institutions (Conventions, Article 6, paragraph 2).
It developed this idea further in the Recommendation which
provides that the insured persons should, through elected
representatives, have an important part in the management of the
insurance system (Recommendation, paragraph 13).
§ 6. — Financial Resources and Sharing of the Cost
A compulsory sickness insurance scheme cannot be effective
unless it is supplied with sufficient resources to meet its many
liabilities with respect to the health and economic protection of
the insured persons and their families. The collection of the sums
needed for the working of sickness insurance raises two problems,
namely, which groups can and should contribute to those resources,
and what share each should contribute.
The Office had based its proposals on the principle of contributions from employers and workers, which was at once accepted by
the Conference with almost complete unanimity. The Draft
Conventions accordingly provide that the insured persons and
their employers shall share in providing the financial resources of
the sickness insurance system (Conventions, Article 7, paragraph 1).
Thus the insured persons and their employers are asked to make
joint provision for the future.
Ought the Conference to have stipulated that a financial contribution to the resources of sickness insurance should also be made
by the public authorities ? There was some difference of opinion
on this point. The supporters of such a measure argued that
insurance institutions spent large sums on the organisation of
medical services and on improving sanitary equipment, that they
did very useful work in the field of sickness prevention, that
they thus had to meet expenditure which was considerably in
excess of their original liabilities and therefore thoroughly deserved
material assistance from the community. Their opponents pointed
out that the maintenance and depreciation of " human capital "
should normally be a charge on production and that no financial
— 57 —
contribution towards such a charge could reasonably be expected
from public authorities.
By a very large majority the Conference recognised the utility
and the expediency of a financial contribution from.the public
authorities, but it did not go so far as to impose a strict obligation.
States which ratify the Draft Conventions remain free to adopt
such provisions as they please concerning the financial participation of public authorities.
The Recommendation, however,
emphasises the advantages of such participation (Recommendation,
paragraph 15).
The Conference took no decision on the question how the cost
of insurance should be shared between insured persons, employers,
and possibly the public authorities. The absence of any definite
principles based either on responsibility for the occurrence of
sickness or on the advantages resulting from sickness insurance
for insured persons, employers, and the public authorities largely
accounts for the reticence of the Conference in regard to the
sharing of the cost between the three parties. Moreover, a legal
formula fixing the share of the contribution to be borne by each
party could only determine their initial liability ; the final incidence
of the burden would depend upon the interplay of economic forces.
§ 7. — Settlement of Disputes
The operation of sickness insurance schemes affects in various
ways the interests of insured persons and their employers, doctors,
chemists, dentists and other auxiliaries of the insurance fund. The
provisions of laws and regulations and the clauses of contracts and
collective agreements may give rise to disputes which should be
settled as quickly and as correctly as possible.
The commonest disputes are those connected with the right
of insured persons to benefit and with the amount and period of
benefit. Such disputes must be settled immediately. When an
insured person falls ill, there should be no delay in his obtaining
the treatment he needs and the cash benefits on which his subsistence and that of his family depend. Any delay in the payment
of benefit may lessen the social value of insurance.
The Conference had to decide in the first place whether the
insured person should have a right of appeal in the event of a
dispute concerning benefits, and if so to what tribunal.
As regards the first point, it was of opinion that States Members
— 58 —
should be required to give a definite undertaking to recognise the
insured person's right of appeal in the event of disputes concerning
benefits. It therefore inserted in the Draft Conventions a clause
to the effect that a right of appeal shall be granted to the insured
person in case of dispute concerning his right to benefit (Industry
Convention, Article 9; Agriculture Convention, Article 8).
As regards the judicial bodies competent to settle disputes
concerning benefits, the Conference showed a preference for special
tribunals, since the ordinary courts cannot, in view of their procedure and their manifold duties, settle with due dispatch the
many disputes concerning benefits. Without requiring any definite
undertaking in this respect, the Conference recommended that
disputes as to benefits between insured persons and insurance
institutions should be' referred to special tribunals, the members
of which include judges or assessors specially cognisant of the
purposes of insurance and the needs of insured persons (Recommendation, paragraph 16). This confirms the superiority of special
tribunals, for the inclusion of judges or assessors chosen from
among the persons concerned means that decisions can be reached
with full knowledge of the social and industrial situation of insured
persons.
§ 8. — Special Provision concerning Sparsely Populated Territories
In sparsely populated territories the institution of a compulsory
insurance scheme as defined by the Draft Conventions may raise
considerable difficulties of organisation. In such districts, where
geographical conditions make communications precarious, it is
hard to see how insurance funds can be organised that will be able
to provide medical and pharmaceutical aid. Progress there must
be gradual and the more urgent needs have to be met first by the
organisation of a general sanitary service suited to local conditions.
The Conference considered this matter and approved of a
clause providing that it shall be open to States which comprise
large and very thinly populated areas not to apply the Conventions
in districts where, by reason of the small density and wide dispersion
of the population and the inadequacy of the means of communication, the organisation of sickness insurance is impossible (Industry
Convention, Article 10; Agriculture Convention, Article 9).
On the other hand, the Conference in no way intended that
workers in sparsely populated areas should be left without any
— 59 —
medical aid. On the contrary, having regard to the various
suggestions made as to the most effective means of overcoming the
obstacles to the organisation of compulsory sickness insurance in
such districts, it recommended that the States in question should
establish in the sparsely populated parts of their territory a sanitary
service adequate to the local conditions, and should examine
periodically whether the progress made there permits of introducing
compulsory sickness insurance (Recommendation, paragraph 17).
— 60 —
CHAPTER III
INVALIDITY, OLD-AGE AND WIDOWS' AND ORPHANS'
INSURANCE AND NON-CONTRIBUTORY PENSIONS
INTRODUCTION
The international regulations concerning invalidity, old-age and
widows' and orphans' insurance consist of six Draft Conventions
and one Recommendation, as follows:
Draft Convention concerning compulsory old-age insurance for
persons employed in industrial or commercial undertakings,
in the liberal professions, and for outworkers and domestic
servants (1933);
Draft Convention concerning compulsory old-age insurance for
persons employed in agricultural undertakings (1933);
Draft Convention concerning compulsory invalidity insurance for
persons employed in industrial or commercial undertakings,
in the liberal professions, and for outworkers and domestic
servants (1933);
Draft Convention concerning compulsory invalidity insurance
for persons employed in agricultural undertakings (1933);
Draft Convention concerning compulsory widows' and orphans'
insurance for persons employed in industrial or commercial
undertakings, in the liberal professions, and for outworkers
and domestic servants (1933);
Draft Convention concerning compulsory widows' and orphans'
insurance for persons employed in agricultural undertakings
(1933);
Recommendation concerning the general principles of invalidity,
old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance (1933).
Each of the risks of invalidity, old-age, and death is thus the
subject of two Draft Conventions, one for persons employed in
industry and commerce and the other for persons employed in
agriculture.
This method may from some points of view seem open to criticism. Invalidity insurance must in principle be linked up with
— 61 —
either sickness insurance or old-age insurance, and widows' and
orphans' insurance must be organised in close connection with
old-age insurance. But the adoption of separate Draft Conventions for each of these risks must not in any way be construed as
an invitation to national legislatures to provide for distinct enactments and separate institutions for dealing with each risk. The
adoption of separate Draft Conventions for old-age insurance and
for invalidity or widows' and orphans' insurance was dictated as
much by the unequal development and the diversity of national
schemes of insurance as by the desire to facilitate the adoption
of the international regulations by as large a number of States as
possible.
For similar reasons arising out of the present development of
national legislation, the Conference, in agreement with the proposal
made by the Office, adopted separate Draft Conventions in regard
to insurance for persons employed in agriculture. No one can
deny that insurance of this kind is much less highly developed
for agricultural workers than for other occupations. Had texts
been drawn up to cover all workers, it would have meant that quite
a number of countries which had no insurance scheme for agricultural workers would not have accepted the future regulations. In
view of the structure of the texts adopted, there is no reason to
fear that the existence of separate texts will lead to the adoption
of schemes providing a lower level of protection for agricultural
workers. The International Labour Organisation has always held
that agricultural workers should enjoy at least the same level of
protection as other categories of workers, and the Conference made
the Draft Conventions for agricultural workers in substance identical with those for workers in industry and commerce. As the
texts contain only general rules, which can be applied in national
legislation by methods adapted to the conditions of existence of
agricultural workers, it was not considered necessary to propose
different regulations for the different categories of workers.
The six Draft Conventions lay down a very modest standard
of protection, which does not go beyond or even reach the present
level of legislation in quite a number of States ; but the Conference,
in agreement with the Office, has constantly aimed at arriving at
international regulations which can be accepted by all States, even
if they are only taking the first steps towards compulsory insurance
of the kinds in view.
Supplementing these texts, the Conference adopted a Recommendation on the general principles of invalidity, old-age and
— 62 —
widows' and orphans' insurance, which lays down a much higher
standard of protection than the Draft Conventions and is intended
to bring out clearly the main aspects of the problem and the advances
which should be made in the next few years. In view of the legal
nature of the Recommendation, which imposes on the States less
strict obligations than those contained in the ratified Conventions
and does not meet with the difficulties entailed by ratification, it
was possible to establish a single text for all the risks in question
and all workers.
The decisions of the Conference in regard to invalidity, old-age
and widows' and orphans' insurance and non-contributory pensions
are analysed below point by point.
A. — INVALIDITY,
OLD-AGE AND WIDOWS'
AND ORPHANS'
INSURANCE
§ 1. — Principle of Compulsory Insurance
Article 1 of each of the Draft Conventions provides that each
Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies the
Convention undertakes to set up and maintain a compulsory
insurance scheme.
The Conference thus confirmed without discussion or opposition
its adherence to the principle of compulsory insurance which it
had already accepted in 1927 when preparing the sickness insurance
Conventions. Necessary as the compulsory principle is in sickness
insurance, it is still more indispensable for the collection of the
funds required for the constitution of invalidity, old-age and widows'
and orphans' pensions, which can be provided only if there is
continuous saving over the whole of the worker's active life.
§ 2. — Scope of Compulsory Insurance
GENERAL FORMULA
The Draft Conventions as a whole establish the principle that
insurance should be compulsory for manual and non-manual
workers, including apprentices, employed in industrial, commercial,
and agricultural undertakings or in the liberal professions, and
— 63 —
for outworkers and domestic servants (Conventions, Article 2,
paragraph 1).
This principle was submitted to the Conference by the Office
as a basis for discussion. The question arose whether it should
be restricted by excluding employed persons in the liberal professions, or extended by applying it at least to persons working on
their own account.
There was a lengthy discussion on the amendments concerning
persons working on their own account. The movers of the amendments emphasised the precarious conditions of many such workers,
who have just as much need of protection as employed persons,
their resources often being slight.
While fully appreciating the position of persons working on their
own account, a number of delegates laid stress on the practical
difficulties of applying compulsory insurance satisfactorily to them.
Their income cannot be known except from returns which it is
difficult to check; the income from their occupational activities
varies considerably from year to year, so that they might sometimes
be included in insurance and sometimes excluded from it; it is
much more difficult to collect contributions from them than from
employed workers ; invalidity, old age and death do not necessarily
involve the same economic consequences for them as for employed
persons, and so on. Some delegates indeed doubted whether the
International Labour Organisation was competent to regulate the
question of insurance for persons working on their own account.
When the Draft Recommendation came up for discussion the
question was again debated, and the Conference finally affirmed
the value of including in compulsory insurance persons of small
means working on their own account in industry, commerce and
agriculture, where economic, social and administrative conditions
permit (Recommendation, paragraph 1 (&)).
EXCEPTIONS
Most of the laws which apply the principle of compulsory insurance to all persons normally employed for remuneration also admit
a variety of exceptions or restrictions. In view of the attitude
taken up by numerous Governments, the Office had proposed that
exceptions should be authorised in respect of workers whose
remuneration exceeds a prescribed amount, workers whose employment is of short duration, persons only engaged in occasional or
subsidiary employment, young workers under a prescribed age,
_
64 —
workers too old to become insured when they enter employment,
and members of the employer's family not employed by him under
a contract of employment.
There was a long discussion on the Office proposals and the list
of exceptions was appreciably lengthened. It is now provided
that each State may in its national legislation make such exceptions
as it deems necessary in respect of the following: workers whose
remuneration exceeds a prescribed amount and, where national
laws or regulations do not make this exception general in its
application, any non-manual workers engaged in occupations
which are ordinarily considered as liberal professions ; workers who
are not paid a money wage ; young workers under a prescribed age
and workers too old to become insured when they first enter
employment; outworkers whose conditions of work are not of a
like nature to those of ordinary wage earners ; members of the
employer's family; workers whose employment is of such a nature
that, its total duration being necessarily short, they cannot qualify
for benefit, and persons engaged solely in occasional or subsidiary
employment ; invalid workers and workers in receipt of an invalidity
or old-age pension; retired public officials employed for remuneration and persons possessing a private income, where the retirement
pension or private income is at least equal to the old-age pension
provided by national laws or regulations ; workers who during their
studies give lessons or work for remuneration in preparation for
an occupation corresponding to such studies. The Draft Conventions on invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance for
workers in industrial or commercial undertakings also provide
for a possible exception in the case of domestic servants employed
in the households of agricultural employers (Conventions, Article 2,
paragaph 2).
This list of possible exceptions is decidedly long, and one of the
workers' delegates complained that, although the Convention laid
down the principle of compulsory insurance for employed persons
in general, so many exceptions were permitted that the general
formula had been deprived of much of its effect. The criticism is
not to be neglected, for it must be admitted that the Conference
arrived at its decision with the definite intention of not putting
obstacles to ratification in the way of certain States by refusing
some exceptions the necessity for which, on administrative,
technical, or social grounds, was questioned.
In fact, however, the exceptions which have been permitted are
far from depriving the general formula of compulsory insurance for
— 65 —
employed persons of much of its effect, for the categories of persons
to which they apply are very small.
Moreover, many of these exceptions had to be accepted in the
interests of the workers themselves, for it would be unfair to
demand the payment of contributions from workers who probably
or certainly would never satisfy the conditions for acquiring the
pension because of the nature and duration of the employment in
which they are engaged.
While the Conference agreed to quite a number of exceptions
with a view to facilitating ratification of the Conventions, it emphasised in the Recommendation that invalidity, old-age and
widows' and orphans' insurance for employed persons should
include, irrespective of age, sex or nationality, every person who is
ordinarily engaged in employment for remuneration (Recommendation, paragraph 1 (a)).
The Recommendation itself countenances certain restrictions
concerning age or limit of earnings, but it endeavours to restrict
their scope. If it is considered advisable to fix a minimum age for
entry into insurance, such age should be as close as possible to the
age at which compulsory school attendance ceases and at which the
choice of an occupation is made. The fixing of a maximum age for
entry into insurance is only justified in insurance schemes which
make the right to a pension conditional upon the completion of a
qualifying period, and then only for workers who, when they take
up employment for remuneration as their ordinary occupation, are
too old to be able to complete the qualifying period before the
normal pensionable age. Where it is considered advisable to fix
a maximum remuneration as a criterion of liability to insurance,
only such workers should thereby be excluded as, by reason of the
fact that their remuneration is considerably in excess of the general
level of wages, may be deemed to be capable of making provision
by themselves against invalidity, old age and death (Recommendation, paragraphs 1 (b), 2, 3 and 4).
A study of the Draft Conventions as a whole, together with the
Recommendation, clearly shows that the Conference was in favour of
a general scheme of compulsory insurance for all employed persons,
and that, apart from the concessions made with a view to facilitating
ratification of the Conventions, it expressed the hope that national
laws would limit their restrictions to a small number of workers who,
by reason of their remuneration, might be considered able to cover
the risks themselves, or who could not obtain a full return in the
form of benefits for the contributions they would be obliged to pay.
5
— 66 —
SAFEGUARDING OF ACQUIRED
RIGHTS
Most insurance schemes protect the rights of persons who were
compulsorily insured and cease to be liable to insurance without
receiving benefit because, for example, they have ceased to be
employed persons or because their remuneration has come to
exceed the specified maximum.
The Conference agreed to the Office proposal to lay down the
principle t h a t the rights of persons who had been compulsorily
insured and were not in receipt of a pension should be preserved,
while leaving the national law free to choose between two solutions :
voluntary continuation of insurance, or maintenance of rights on
periodical payment of a continuation fee unless the rights are
automatically maintained (Conventions, Article 3).
§ 3. — Risks Covered
OLD A G E : PENSIONABLE A G E
The age at which the old-age pension normally falls due may be
fixed b y reference to either of two standards: the age at which a
person is presumed to be incapable of work, or the age at which he
is entitled to retire from work. Whichever standard is adopted,
national laws always fix a normal age for the granting of old-age
pensions without requiring the insured person to prove t h a t he is
actually unable to earn his living. The age limit often varies with
sex and more rarely with occupation. In general schemes the
usual age-limits are 60 and 65 years for men and 60 years for women.
In the case of certain particularly arduous or unhealthy occupations
the limit is often reduced by five or even ten years. Thus in some
countries miners can claim pensions at the age of 60 or even 55,
provided they have been employed on mining work for 25 or
30 years.
There were serious differences of opinion regarding the fixing of
an international rule for the pensionable age. The question was
whether this should be fixed at 60 years or 65. The Conference
considered at length the possibility of reducing the age-limit to 60,
either for all insured persons or for certain categories, such as
miners. It also considered whether it would not be possible to
make the pensionable age vary according as the country in question
had or had not an unemployment insurance scheme. Thus
— 67 —
employed persons might normally be entitled to an old-age pension
at the age of 60, but the limit could be raised to 65 in the case of
States which had unemployment insurance legislation as wide in
scope as the Convention and not excluding workers between the
ages of 60 and 65 from compulsory insurance.
Although the machinery of this proposal would be in conformity
with the object of the International Conventions as regards the
establishment of a reasonable balance between the social charges
of different countries, the Conference considered that the method
would not in practice solve the problem, because a proper balance
could not be struck between an unemployment insurance scheme
paying benefits for a limited period of from three to six months
and an old-age insurance scheme granting annual pensions between
the ages of 60 and 65.
Finally, the Conference adopted the Office text, which provides
that all insured persons should be entitled to an old-age pension
at an age to be determined by national laws or regulations but
which, in the case of insurance schemes for employed persons,
should not exceed 65 (Old-Age Conventions, Article 4). No restrictions are imposed as regards the fixing of the pensionable age in
general insurance schemes covering other classes of the population
besides employed persons, but the 65-year limit is a maximum in the
very great majority of, if not practically all, compulsory insurance
schemes, the scope of which is in essence determined by the
criterion of employment. The Conference accepted this maximum
solely on account of the difficulties that many countries would
experience in lowering the limit to 60: the granting of an old-age
pension at the age of 60 would place a very heavy additional
burden on the insurance schemes as a result of the increase in the
number of beneficiaries and also in the average expectation of life
during the last half-century. The additional charges could only
be met either by increasing the contributions and subsidies paid
or else by reducing the rates of benefits. Both these solutions were
considered impossible, because on the one hand pension rates are
already exceedingly low in most countries, and on the other hand
wages have been falling for some years past and the budgets of the
public authorities are everywhere sufficiently burdened and in some
countries show large deficits.
The Conference considered it necessary, however, to affirm in
the Recommendation the desirability of lowering the age-limit to
60 whenever possible. A worker who is granted an old-age pension
at 60 has normally worked for 40 or 45 years, and after such a time
— 68 —
any worker should be entitled to receive a pension sufficient to
enable him to enjoy a well-earned rest. Persons between the ages
of 60 and 65 are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain employment, more especially as a result of the changes in working conditions brought about by the spread of rationalisation and
mechanisation in industry. Even when the present depression
disappears and production rises to the level it reached in the
prosperous years of 1929 and the preceding period, workers over
60 will certainly find it difficult to obtain employment. Finally,
it is an economic paradox to retain workers from 60 to 65 years of
age in active life when many workers are unemployed and drawing
unemployment insurance benefits or relief.
The text proposed by the Office, which was to recommend that
the age for admission to an old-age pension should be reduced to
60 years, if necessary by stages, as a means oí relieving the labour
market and ensuring rest for the aged, was therefore adopted, but
only after the inclusion of an amendment to the effect that the
lowering of the age-limit to 60 was recommended " in so far as the
demographic, economic and financial situation of the country
permits " (Recommendation, paragraph 11). The principle of
old-age pensions at the age of 60 was therefore laid down by the
Conference, but it must be admitted that the principle has been
hedged about with important reservations.
INVALIDITY: DEFINITION OF INVALIDITY
The risk covered by invalidity insurance schemes may be defined
from three points of view: that of physical invalidity, that of
occupational incapacity, and that of general incapacity for work.
Physical invalidity means the loss of a certain degree of bodily
soundness, quite apart from the economic or occupational consequences of that loss.
Occupational incapacity is estimated in terms of the loss of
earning capacity resulting from invalidity in the occupation
previously exercised by the worker.
General incapacity is defined in terms of the possibility which the
disabled person has of finding employment and earning a living
on the general labour market.
As a general rule, invalidity is defined on the basis of occupational
incapacity in the special insurance schemes for certain occupations
or certain branches of economic activity (miners or salaried employees) and on the basis of general incapacity in general schemes
— 69 —
for all persons employed in a variety of occupations or branches
of the economic system. The conception of physical invalidity
is not adopted in any legislation.
In point of fact, the idea of general incapacity contains the idea
of occupational incapacity. A worker who is unable to work or to
earn his living on the general labour market is naturally incapable
to at least an equal extent of carrying on his special occupation.
However invalidity may be defined, whether as occupational or
general incapacity, the award of an invalidity pension is subject
to the existence of a certain minimum degree of incapacity. National
laws are quite strict on this point. Some grant an invalidity pension
only for total incapacity; a larger number when the loss of capacity
reaches two-thirds of the normal capacity, and a few when the
loss of capacity is not less than 50 per cent. While the figure of
two-thirds is to be found in a large number of laws, there are a
certain number of others which restrict the right to a pension to
persons yhose actual earnings do not exceed a certain sum which
can hard y be said to correspond to any definite degree of incapacity.
Moreovei ¿ the application of legal definitions of invalidity raises
serious practical difficulties, and it may happen in actual practice
that definitions which appear quite different lead to the granting
of invalidity pensions under very similar conditions.
The Conference decided, on the proposal of the Office, to include
in the Draft Convention a very elastic formula, which guarantees
an invalidity pension to any person who becomes generally incapacitated for work and thereby unable to earn an appreciable
remuneration (Invalidity Conventions, Article 4, paragraph 1).
The principle of occupational incapacity takes the place, however,
of that of general incapacity for work in the case of special schemes
for non-manual workers. In this case, the Conference decided that
an insured person who suffers from incapacity which renders him
unable to earn an appreciable remuneration in the occupation in
which he was ordinarily engaged or a similar occupation shall be
entitled to an invalidity pension (Invalidity Conventions, Article 4,
paragraph 3).
As the definition of invalidity in the Draft Conventions is really
very wide and elastic, it was felt desirable to lay down stricter
conditions in the Recommendation, particularly with regard to the
minimum degree of incapacity. The Conference, having in mind
the definitions given in most legislations, decided that a pension
should be awarded to an insured person who by reason of sickness
or infirmity is unable to earn an appreciable remuneration by
— 70 —
work suited t o his strength and ability and his training; remuneration which is less than one-third of the ordinary remuneration
of a fit worker of similar training and experience should not be
deemed to be appreciable.
Nevertheless, in special insurance
schemes set up on behalf of manual or non-manual workers in
certain occupations, the Recommendation prescribes t h a t reduction
of capacity for work should be assessed solely with reference to
the occupation hitherto followed or to a similar occupation
(Recommendation, paragraph 16).
DEA/TH: PERSONS ENTITLED TO PENSION
The risk covered by the insurance scheme in the event of the
death of an insured person or pensioner is really defined by determining the persons to whom benefits, whether in the form of lump
sums or of pensions, are to be paid.
Lump-sum payments are generally intended either to cover
funeral expenses or to provide the members of the family with a
small amount of capital which, during the first few weeks or months,
will enable t h e m to adapt themselves to the new economic situation
arising out of the death of the wage earner or pensioner.
Pensions are intended as a substitute, often only partial, for the
income which the family enjoyed from the wages or pension of
the deceased.
The Conference, being of the opinion t h a t benefits to survivors
do not satisfactorily fulfil the purpose of social insurance unless
they take the form of pensions, adopted the proposal of the Office
t h a t the two Draft Conventions on widows' and orphans' insurance
should provide for survivors' pensions.
In national legislation, the right to a pension is generally restricted
to the widow, invalid widower, and orphans; in rare cases it extends
to parents or brothers and sisters of the deceased. The Conference
therefore decided that widows' and orphans' insurance schemes
should as a minimum confer pension rights on widows who have
not remarried and the children of a deceased insured or pensioned
person (Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 6).
Wido cvs' Pensions
Most of the general schemes make the granting of a widow's pension
subject to certain conditions as regards age, incapacity to earn, or
family responsibilities which show that she was actually dependent
4
— 71 —
on the insured person and is unable to maintain herself. Further,
several laws make it a condition for the award of a pension
that the marriage should have lasted for a certain time and
have been contracted before the husband acquired the right to
a pension.
The Conference had first of all to decide between the two principles on which the right to a widow's pension may be based:
acquisition of the right irrespective of conditions as to age or
invalidity, or reservation of the right to widows who are above a
prescribed age or are invalids.
In view of the state of existing laws, the Conference adopted the
text proposed by the Office, and the Draft Conventions accordingly
leave it open to national laws and regulations to make the right
to a widow's pension subject to the fulfilment of conditions as to
age or invalidity. It accepted an amendment, however, to the
effect that in the case of special schemes for non-manual workers,
the right to a widow's pension should not be dependent on any
condition of age or invalidity (Widows' and Orphans' Conventions,
Article 7, paragraphs 1 and 2). This naturally does not apply to
general insurance schemes which cover manual and non-manual
workers, nor does it imply that States which ratify the Draft
Conventions on widows' and orphans' insurance are obliged to set
up special insurance schemes for non-manual workers.
The Conference also agreed that the right to a widow's pension
may be made subject to certain conditions as to the date, duration
and continued existence of the marriage. The right may be restricted to cases where the marriage has lasted for a prescribed
period and was contracted before the insured or pensioned person
had reached a prescribed age or become invalid. In addition, it
may be withheld if, at the time of the death of the insured or pensioned person, the marriage had been dissolved or if a separation
had been pronounced in proceedings in which the wife was found
solely at fault (Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 7,
paragraphs 3 and 4).
These rules laid down in the Conventions with regard to the right
to a widow's pension are obviously somewhat strict, and are less
favourable than those contained in a number of national laws.
For this reason, the Conference decided to suggest in the Recommendation certain improvements which it considered desirable.
If a pensioner or insured person dies after completing the qualifying
period and leaves a widow, the widow should be entitled to a pension
as long as she does not remarry. If, however, the award of the
— 72 —
pension is subject to the fulfilment of other conditions, pensions
should nevertheless be awarded to widows unable to earn their
living by reason of age or invalidity and to widows with a dependent
child who is of school age or who, being under the age of 17, is
continuing his general or vocational education (Recommendation,
paragraph 20). A pension should also be awarded to an invalid
widower who, by reason of his invalidity, was dependent on an
insured woman who died after completing the qualifying period
(Recommendation, paragraph 21).
Orphans' Pensions
Orphans are entitled to a pension and an increase of the
widow's pension is granted in respect of them under most national
laws only if, owing to their age or to the fact that they are continuing
their studies, they are unable to provide for themselves, or if they
suffer from some disability which prevents them from earning their
living.
In the light of the present state of insurance legislation, the
normal compulsory school age, and the normal age for admission
to employment, the Conference fixed the minimum age up to which
orphans should be entitled to a pension at 14 years (Widows' and
Orphans' Conventions, Article 8, paragraph 1).
In the case of an orphan left by an insured or pensioned mother,
the right to a pension may be conditional upon the mother having
contributed to the support of the child, or upon her having been
a widow at the time of her death (Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 8, paragraph 2).
Here, again, the definition of the persons entitled to a pension
is rather strict, and the Conference considered it indispensable to
insert a wider provision in the Recommendation. It is there stated
that the pension of every child of school age who was dependent
on a pensioner or insured person who died after completing the
qualifying period should continue to be paid until the age of 17 if
the child is continuing his general or vocational education and even
beyond this age if the child cannot by reason of infirmity earn his
living (Recommendation, paragraph 23 (a)).
— 73 —
§ 4. — Conditions of Award
QUALIFYING P E R I O D
Principle of Qualifying Period
As a general rule, the payment of invalidity, old-age and widows'
and orphans' pensions is subject to the completion by the insured
person of a qualifying period, the purpose of which may be either
to prevent persons from becoming insured by obtaining employment
for the sole purpose of receiving a pension at an early date, or to
establish some degree of proportion between benefits and contributions.
A qualifying period is not essential in schemes in which the
amount of the pension depends on the accumulated value of the
contributions paid by or on behalf of the insured person, but it is
required in schemes where the pension or a fraction of the pension
is a fixed amount.
Whatever may be the purpose of the qualifying period in any
particular case, it means that the insured person must have been
insured for a certain minimum period during his working life, or
that he must have paid a certain number of contributions during
the period immediately preceding the event giving rise to benefit,
or, sometimes, that these two conditions must be satisfied simultaneously.
As most national laws provide for a qualifying period, the
Conference decided to insert in the six Draft Conventions a provision to the effect that the right to an invalidity, old-age or widows'
or orphans' pension may be made conditional upon the completion
of a qualifying period, which may involve the payment of a
minimum number of contributions since entry into insurance and
during a prescribed period immediately preceding the happening
of the event insured against (Invalidity Conventions, Article 5;
Old-Age Conventions, Article 5; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions,
Article 4).
Length of Qualifying Period
In old-age insurance, the length of the qualifying period varies
very considerably in different countries. It may be 2, 3, or 4 years,
or more often 5 years, while in some cases, it is as long as 10, 20,
or even 25 years. This diversity made it impossible to include a
clause on a maximum qualifying period in the Draft Conventions
_
74 —
concerning old-age insurance.
The Recommendation states,
however, that the qualifying period in old-age insurance should
not exceed 120 contribution months, 500 contribution weeks, or
3,000 contribution days (Recommendation, paragraph 6).
A
qualifying period of 10 years was considered quite ample to prevent
persons from entering insurance by the more or less fictitious
adoption of an insurable occupation for the sole purpose of
acquiring the right to a pension. *
As regards ensuring t h a t the benefits are in some measure
proportionate to the contributions paid, it was thought desirable
to do this by the method of computing the pensions rather than
to fix a very long qualifying period, which would exclude from the
benefits of compulsory insurance workers who were older than
their fellows when they became wage earners or when the compulsory insurance legislation came into force.
In invalidity and widows' and orphans' insurance, the qualifying
period should normally be shorter than in old-age insurance.
Invalidity and death may occur at any age, even when an insured
person is young and was perfectly healthy when he became insured ;
they may even occur a few months after he first became insured.
Compulsory insurance would not be fulfilling its part in protecting
the workers if it demanded too long a qualifying period before
granting an invalidity or survivors' pension. Most national laws
recognise this fact and the qualifying period is generally fixed at
from 2 to 5 years.
In view of the agreement of so many national schemes on this
point and the favourable opinions expressed by a number of
Governments, it was felt possible to prescribe in the Draft Conventions on invalidity and widows' and orphans' insurance that
the qualifying period should not exceed 60 contribution months,
250 contribution weeks, or 1,500 contribution days (Invalidity
Conventions, Article 5, paragraph 2; Widows' and Orphans'
Conventions, Article 4, paragraph 2).
Assimilation of Periods of Temporary Incapacity and Unemployment
to Contribution Periods in Reckoning Qualifying Period
The completion of a qualifying period, implying as it does the
payment of a certain minimum number of contributions, is interrupted if the payment of contributions ceases, as for example
when the insured person stops work on account of illness or unemployment; and if the event insured against happens soon
— 75 —
afterwards, the insured person and his dependants will be unable
to claim a pension simply because one essential condition has not
been fulfilled. The consequences of an interruption in payment
may be particularly serious when the right to a pension is conditional on the payment of a certain number of contributions during
the period immediately preceding the event insured against,
because in that case an insured person and his dependants may
lose all the benefits of long years of compulsory saving.
In order to avoid this hardship, many laws provide that periods
of incapacity due to accident or sickness and periods of involuntary
unemployment shall be assimilated to contribution periods for the
purpose of calculating the qualifying period.
The present widespread unemployment has served to bring, out
the great value of this protective clause, and the Conference therefore, accepting a proposal made by the Office, inserted in the
Draft Conventions on invalidity and widows' and orphans' insurance
the proviso that where the completion of the qualifying period
Involves the payment of a prescribed number of contributions
during a prescribed period immediately preceding the happening
of the event insured against, periods for which benefit has been
paid in respect of temporary incapacity for work or of unemployment should be reckoned as contribution periods to such extent
and under such conditions as may be determined by national
laws or regulations (Invalidity Conventions, Article 5, paragraph 3;
Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 4, paragraph 3).
A more generous solution is prescribed in the Recommendation,
which states that periods during which the insured person is
incapable of work by reason of sickness, is not available for work
by reason of childbirth, or is involuntarily unemployed should,
within limits to be prescribed, count towards the qualifying period,
even where no contributions are paid for such periods by sickness
or maternity insurance or by an unemployment fund. This clause
refers to old-age insurance as well as to invalidity and widows'
and orphans' insurance (Recommendation, paragraph 7).
MAINTENANCE OF RIGHTS
Maintenance of Validity of Contributions during Interruptions
in Payment
In compulsory insurance schemes, the maintenance of the validity
of contributions is dependent on continuity in the payment of
these contributions until the event insured against happens,
— 76 —
except when each payment can be considered as a single premium
providing a deferred annuity. This condition is imposed in order
to preserve the financial equilibrium of the insurance scheme,
since the actuarial estimates presuppose the payment of contributions into the insured person's account during the whole of his
active life.
Interruptions in the payment of contributions may therefore
involve" the invalidation of contributions previously paid, thus
depriving the insured person of the benefit of these payments and
forcing him, if he again becomes liable to insurance, to complete
the whole of the qualifying period afresh before acquiring any
rights to benefit. As a matter of fact, continuity in the payment
of contributions should result from the strict and effective application of the compulsory principle. The majority of insurance laws,
however, accompany the principle of compulsion with a provision
that interruptions in the payment of contributions do not invalidate
previous payments if a prescribed frequency is maintained.
Sometimes the law provides that a person may not claim benefits
unless he was actually insured immediately before the event takes
place for which he claims a pension. This, as has been seen, is
one special form of the qualifying period. It is more usual, however,
for the law to state that interruptions in payment for whatsoever
cause do not involve the loss of rights acquired by the payment
of contributions, provided the interruptions do not exceed a
certain duration. Two systems are then possible: the period
during which the validity of contributions is maintained may be
fixed (at a certain number of months, for example), or it may
vary with the length of time during which the insured person has
actually paid contributions.
The requirement of regularity in the payment of contributions
is generally modified by the fact that periods of incapacity or
unemployment for which benefit is paid do not count as interruptions. The cost of maintaining the rights of the insured person
during such periods of incapacity or unemployment may be borne
by the insurance institution itself or met by special payments,
usually out of public funds.
Even when the condition of regularity in the payment of contributions is mitigated in various ways, the insured person still runs
the risk of losing the benefit of his contributions if he does not
pay the required number of contributions during one of the specified
periods or if the interruption in payment exceeds a certain length
of time. Where the amount of the pension depends on the amount
— 77 —
of the contributions paid, as it does in schemes which require
regularity in the payment of contributions, the total loss of the
rights acquired would be particularly serious, and in order to
avoid this, it is often prescribed that the validity of past contributions can be restored by completion of a fresh qualifying period.
No objection was raised against the principle of the maintenance
of rights during an interruption in payments, provided that the
interruption does not exceed certain limits. The Conference
decided that an insured person who ceases to be liable to insurance
without being entitled to a benefit representing a return for the
contributions credited to his account should retain his rights in
respect of these contributions, but that national laws or regulations
may terminate rights in respect of contributions on the expiry of
a term to be reckoned from the date when the insured person
ceases to be liable to insurance. This term may be either variable
or fixed. Where the term is variable, it must not be less than
one-third (less the periods for which contributions have not been
credited) of the total of the periods for which contributions have
been credited since entry into insurance. Where the term is fixed,
it must in no case be less than 18 months, and rights in respect
of contributions may be terminated on the expiry of the term
unless, in the course thereof, a minimum number of contributions
prescribed by national laws or regulations has been credited to the
account of the insured person in virtue of either compulsory or
voluntarily continued insurance (Invalidity Conventions, Article 6;
Old-age Conventions, Article 6 ; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions,
Article 5).
As the text inserted in the Draft Conventions covers all interruptions in payment, no matter what their cause, and treats them in
identical fashion, it follows that an interruption in payment on
account of sickness or unemployment has the same consequences
under the Conventions as an interruption due to voluntary departure from an insurable occupation. The question arose whether,
as an amendment suggested, this principle could be made general
by inserting in the Draft Conventions the rule adopted in some
countries that interruptions in payments resulting from incapacity
or unemployment should not be taken into account in reckoning
the period of validity of contributions.
This amendment, being in disagreement with most of the present
provisions of national laws, placed the Conference before the
alternative of accepting it, but with far-reaching restrictions,
which would have considerably reduced its scope while not affecting
— 78 —
serious difficulties of application, or of merely recommending it.
The latter solution was adopted.
According to the Recommendation, periods of incapacity due
to sickness or maternity, periods of involuntary unemployment,
and periods of military service should be ignored when reckoning
the period of validity of contributions (Recommendation, paragraph 8(a)). Any further retention of rights in respect of contributions
may be made conditional either upon resumption of payment of
contributions in virtue of compulsory or voluntarily continued
insurance or upon the payment of a moderate continuation fee
(Recommendation, paragraph 8 (&)). A person formerly insured
should be able to recover rights already expired by the payment
of a prescribed number of contributions in virtue of compulsory
or voluntarily continued insurance; where the pension varies with
the number or amount of the contributions credited to the account
of the insured person, the number of contributions so prescribed
should be less than the number required for the initial qualifying
period (Recommendation, paragraph 9).
Maintenance and Increase of Rights of Unemployed
The assimilation, within prescribed limits, of periods of unemployment and incapacity to contribution periods (both for reckoning the qualifying period and for the maintenance of the validity
of contributions) is not in itself adequate to protect the worker
against the effects of prolonged unemployment on his rights under
invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance. There
is really only partial assimilation, for in most insurance schemes
the amount of the pension depends on the number or amount of
the contributions actually paid. If the contributions are not paid
during periods of unemployment, the amount of the pension due
to the insured person does not increase normally with the time spent
in insurance, and an insured person who has been unemployed
for a long period is thus entitled only to very reduced benefits.
The contributions of unemployed persons must therefore be paid
or deemed to have been paid when benefits are being computed,
as otherwise the insurance scheme loses its real value as a protective
agency. Now that unprecedented unemployment has been going
on for years and is likely to continue for a large section of the
working population, the community must make the necessary
effort to save the millions who are at present unemployed from
being put at a double disadvantage by being deprived first of their
wages and then of adequate protection against the risks of invalidity,
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old age and death. But the question arises how the cost is to be
met and how it should be distributed over different groups of
contributors.
There are numerous factors which bring about a decline in the
income of insurance institutions. In the first place, the number of
contributions falls because the unemployed do not pay contributions, and it is rare for the employment funds to pay in their
stead. Secondly, the wages of those who are still in employment
are sometimes considerably reduced, and contributions, which in
most insurance schemes depend on wages, decline as a result both
of the reduction in wage rates and of the decrease in the number
of hours actually worked. There is, moreover, greater irregularity
in the payment of contributions, and after a long period of depression there is an increase in the number of employers who abstain
r om paying contributions, even when threatened with legal proceedings and penalties, which are really difficult to apply in times
of bad trade. Financial stringency also leads the public authorities
to reduce or withhold altogether their subsidy to the insurance
scheme.
While their resources are thus cut down, the insurance institutions are faced by increased charges. Privation reduces the
resistance of the unemployed to disease, and those who are in
employment put off having medical treatment because they are afraid
of not getting back their jobs when they are cured. This tendency
to put off claiming benefits results in a very considerable increase
in the incidence of invalidity. Older workers who have lost their
jobs and who on account of their age cannot find further employment on an overcrowded labour market apply for invalidity pensions
in excess of the normal estimates. Many of these claims must
legitimately be met even under the strict conditions laid down for
the granting of invalidity pensions, for it is extremely difficult
under new conditions on the labour market to determine whether
it is age or some other cause of physical weakness that is responsible
for the inability of a worker to follow an occupation.
In addition to all these causes of diminished resources and
increased expenditure there is another factor which disturbs the
financial balance of the insurance scheme, namely, the cost of
maintaining the rights of unemployed persons and guaranteeing
them adequate benefits.
It is very rarely possible to impose this burden on the insurance
institution itself, that is to say, on the whole body of contributors.
There is hardly any general insurance scheme, no matter how wide
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its scope, that covers a sufficiently large fraction of the working
population to permit the consequences of unemployment for the
insured workers to be distributed over those who are still in employment. It is also extremely difficult, if not impossible, to increase
the rate of contribution on wages which are in any case often
inadequate. On the other hand, it is scarcely possible to economise
on benefits, for invalidity and other pensions are generally low—in
a number of countries very low indeed.
In fact, the consequences of unemployment in the field of social
insurance and the deficit it creates in the finances of the funds or in
the benefits to insured persons can, as a rule, be made good only
by a contribution from the public authorities. This is the course
suggested in the Recommendation, which states that the sums
required to be paid for maintaining the rights in course of acquisition of insured persons who are unemployed for a long time
should—in view of the impossibility of putting the expense of such
payments solely on the insured persons in employment—be obtained
through the financial assistance of the public authorities; and the
same principle should apply to payments for the purpose of consolidating and enhancing the rights of such unemployed persons
(Recommendation, paragraph 10).
§ 5. — Computation of Pensions
F ACTORS ENTERING INTO THE COMPUTATION OF PENSIONS
A pension to cover any of the risks under consideration may be
computed according to either of two fundamental principles: at
a flat rate for all insured persons, or at a rate varying with wages.
In the former case the pension aims at guaranteeing to all insured
persons the strict minimum required for subsistence, while in the
latter it aims at providing benefits in accordance with the economic
and social position of the insured person during his working life.
The amount of the benefit, whether fixed in accordance with
the minimum for subsistence or in accordance with the previous
wage of the insured person, may also vary with the time spent in
insurance or the length of the contribution period. The pension
then depends on the degree and duration of the effort made by
the worker to cover the risk. The introduction of the time factor,
that is, of the time spent in insurance, is thus quite justifiable.
The application of the system to invalidity and survivors' insurance
has, however, the grave defect of not providing sufficient cover for
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events occurring shortly after an insured person has joined the
insurance scheme. In these circumstances the pensioner may
receive a very low, or even insignificant, rate of benefit. Accordingly, the majority of laws tend to correct the excessive influence
of the time factor by including a fixed portion in the pension or by
guaranteeing a minimum rate of pension irrespective of the duration
of the contribution period.
There is always some correlation between the method of computing benefits on the one hand and the method of assessing contributions on the other. When a qualifying period is required, it is
always offset by the payment of a fixed sum or of a fixed fraction of
the wages on which contributions were paid; this fixed amount is
due to the worker as soon as he has completed the qualifying
period, irrespective of the total time spent in msurance. When
benefits vary with wages, contributions do so also.
The majority of national laws make pensions vary with wages
and the amount of the contributions paid, and quite a number of
Governments expressed a preference for this system as against
that guaranteeing only a minimum for subsistence. The Conference
felt, however, that it was not desirable to prevent ratification of
the Conventions by certain countries in which the amount of the
pension bears no relation to the time spent in insurance. It must
be recognised that, while in virtue of the method of computation
these pensions must necessarily be modest in amount, the conditions
under which they are granted are usually very generous, and the
laws prescribing them generally take full effect and grant a large
number of old-age and survivors' pensions either immediately or
after a very short qualifying period.
The Draft Conventions prescribe that the pension shall, whether
or not dependent on the time spent in insurance, be a fixed sum
or a percentage of the remuneration taken into account for insurance
purposes or vary with the amount of the contributions paid. Where
the pension varies with the time spent in insurance and its award
is made conditional upon the completion of a qualifying period,
the pension must, unless a minimum rate is guaranteed, include
a fixed sum or fixed portion not dependent on the time spent in
insurance.
Where contributions are graduated according to
remuneration, the remuneration taken into account for this purpose
must also be taken into account for the purpose of computing the
pension, whether or not the pension varies with the time spent in
insurance (Invalidity Conventions, Article 7; Old-Age Conventions,
Article 7; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 9).
6
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BONUS FOR FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES
Bonuses for family responsibilities are granted in quite a number
of insurance schemes, generally in respect of the children of a
pensioner u p to the age of 15 or 18 years, and in some cases in.
respect of t h e pensioner's wife when she reaches the age of 65.
The payment of these bonuses is evidence of the growing desire in
social work t o protect the whole family of the worker. But although
the tendency is strong, it is not yet sufficiently widespread to enable
the Draft Conventions to demand the granting of such bonuses in
addition to pensions without compromising their chances of ratification by a number of States.
The Conference therefore decided, as the Office suggested, to
specify only in the Recommendation t h a t a bonus should be paid t o
a pensioner for each dependent child who is of school age or, being
under the age of 17, is continuing his general or vocational education,
or who cannot by reason of infirmity earn his living. A bonus should
also be paid to a pensioner when his wife is aged or infirm and is not
herself on this account entitled to a pension (Recommendation,
paragraphs 14 and 18).
SUPPLEMENT WHERE CONSTANT ATTENDANCE IS N E E D E D
An invalidity or old-age pensioner may be unable to move about
or accomplish ordinary and necessary actions without help, and
may therefore require the constant attendance of another person.
In order to provide at least partial compensation for the extra
expenditure involved, some laws grant supplementary pensions
to aged persons, and more frequently to invalids, in these circumstances.
On this point also there were considerable differences of opinion r
and the Conference had to content itself with stating in the
Recommendation that a pensioner who needs the constant attendance of another person should be awarded a special supplement
(Recommendation, paragraph 19).
§ 6. — Minimum Rate of Pensions
There can be no doubt as to the great desirability, and at the
same time the difficulty, of fixing a minimum level of pensions by
international regulations. There are serious technical difficulties
in the way of such regulations. It is not easy to fix a minimum
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level of protection adjusted to the various methods of computing
pensions. But these technical difficulties are not altogether insurmountable. The essential problem was whether such regulations were
expedient. Account has to be taken of the effects from the social
point of view of fixing a low minimum, that is to say, a minimum
of protection lower than that established by the more advanced
laws, and also of the effects from the point of view of the ratification
of the Conventions, that is to say, the practical effects, of fixing a
relatively high minimum, exceeding that guaranteed by many laws.
Since the inclusion in the Draft Conventions of a guaranteed
minimum of protection might either render the effort to bring as
many national laws as possible into harmony with the international
regulations unavailing if the minimum was too high, or have an
unfavourable influence on the progress of national legislation if
it was too low, the Conference adopted the suggestion of the Office
to reserve the whole question of the minimum rate of pensions for
treatment in the Recommendation.
The Recommendation lays down the general principle that the
pensions paid to aged persons, invalids and survivors (widows,
invalid widowers, and orphans) should be sufficient to cover essential
needs and that the minimum should accordingly be fixed with due
regard to the cost of living (Recommendation, paragraphs 13 (a),
17 (a), 22 (a), 24 (a)).
In old-age insurance schemes in which contributions are graduated
according to remuneration, insured persons to whose accounts
contributions corresponding to the normal duration of their working
life have been credited should be awarded a pension commensurate
with their economic condition during their working life. To this
end, the pension provided for insured persons who have completed
30 years of actual contribution should not be less than half the
remuneration taken into account for insurance purposes either since
entry into insurance or over a prescribed period immediately
preceding the award of the pension (Recommendation, paragraph 13 (&)).
In invalidity insurance schemes in which the minimum pension
is fixed in terms of the remuneration taken into account for insurance
purposes, the minimum should not be less than 40 per cent, of such
remuneration. The same result should be aimed at by schemes
in which the pension includes a fixed portion which is the same for
every pensioner and a portion varying with the number and amount
of the contributions credited to his account (Recommendation,
paragraph 17 (b)).
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In widows' and orphans' insurance schemes in which contributions are graduated according to the remuneration of the deceased,
the widow's (or invalid widower's) pension should not be less than
half, or a child's pension less than one-quarter (in the case of
orphans, one-half), of the pension to which the deceased was
entitled or would have been entitled if, at the date of his death,
he had been awarded an invalidity or old-age pension. Nevertheless, where such schemes determine the rights of survivors
without regard to the rate of the pension to which the deceased
was or would have been entitled, a widow's (or invalid widower's)
pension should not be less than 20 per cent., or a child's pension
less than 10 per cent, (in the case of orphans, 20 per cent.), of the
remuneration of the deceased taken into account for the purposes
of his insurance either since entry into insurance or over a prescribed period immediately preceding his death (Recommendation,
paragraphs 22 (b), 24 (b)).
The Recommendation also contains a clause concerning the
maximum amount of survivors' pensions in respect of one deceased
person. This maximum should not, where survivors' pensions vary
with the pension of the deceased, be less than the pension, including
bonuses for family responsibilities, to which the deceased was or
would have been entitled, or, where survivors' pensions vary with
the remuneration of the deceased taken into account for the purposes
of his insurance, be less than half such remuneration (Recommendation, paragraph 25).
§ 7. — Benefits in Kind
The pensions and allowances paid by invalidity, old-age and
widows' and orphans' insurance schemes are however not the sole
aim of insurance. In a number of countries the insurance institutions have been making steady efforts, in the true interests of
insured persons, both as individuals and collectively, to prevent
or mitigate the risks insured against by granting benefits of a
preventive or curative nature. Thus insurance plays a part in the
campaign for protecting the health of the workers and preventing
loss of producing power. Most insurance laws of recent origin
permit or even oblige the insurance institutions to contribute to
the defence and improvement of the health of the insured population
and of their families.
The Conference recognised the part to be played by insurance
institutions in maintaining the health of the workers and preventing
— 85 —
premature invalidity so as to save a waste of human potential,
and accordingly provided in the Draft Conventions on invalidity
and widow' and orphans' insurance that the insurance institutions
should be authorised, under conditions to be determined by national
laws or regulations, to grant benefits in kind for the purpose of
preventing, postponing, alleviating or curing invalidity to persons
who are in receipt of or may be entitled to claim a pension on
the ground of invalidity (Invalidity Conventions, Article 8;
Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 10).
§ 8. — Forfeiture, Suspension and Lapse of Pension Rights
Compulsory insurance legislation always provides for the forfeiture, suspension and lapse of rights to benefits in certain cases:
fraud at the expense of the insurance institution; intervention of
the will of the insured person concerned in bringing about the
event insured against (wilful misconduct, self-mutilation, etc.);
maintenance of the beneficiary at public expense; prohibition or
limitation of the right to receive benefits under other schemes
covering the same risk. Some insurance schemes suspend the
right to pension if the person in question remains liable to insurance.
The Conference decided (Invalidity Conventions, Article 9;
Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 11) to accept these
various reasons for the suspension or forfeiture of the right to a
pension, only one of which gave rise to controversy. Doubts were
expressed as to the advisability of authorising national laws or
regulations to suspend the pension if the pensioner continues to
engage in work rendering him liable to insurance. Though the
object is to relieve the labour market, is it admissible to prohibit
persons from claiming a pension while continuing to work ? At the
present time, the pension granted under many laws is still much
too low to enable the holder to give up his employment if he has
no other sources of livelihood.
The Conference considered however that, to set off the advantages
it guarantees to insured persons, compulsory insurance legislation
may legitimately impose a condition which appears particularly
desirable from the social point of view, namely, that they should
stop working when they have acquired the right to a pension.
Provided that the pension is sufficient for the pensioner to live
on, the condition that its payment will depend on his cessation of
work rendering him liable to insurance should help to relieve the
— 86 —
labour market, for it provides an incentive to the insured person
to stop work on reaching the pensionable age in order that he may
draw the pension to which he is entitled. To some extent, it may
also facilitate the covering of the old-age risk by reducing the
number of beneficiaries.
The Conference therefore, while not wishing to impose a general
restriction as to.the conditions for obtaining or maintaining the
right to benefit, making old-age insurance cover only the risk of
senile invalidity, considered it advisable to authorise the suspension
of old-age pensions under national laws or regulations while the
person concerned is in employment involving compulsory insurance
(Old-Age Conventions, Article 8, paragraph 2 (a)).
§ 9. — Financial Resources
The resources required for an insurance scheme may be obtained
from insured persons, their employers, and the public authorities.
The principle of contributions by the insured persons—the
soundest basis for an insurance scheme, making as it does the right
to benefits dependent on the individual contribution to the protection of the whole insured group—is applied in the vast majority of
national laws, and all insurance schemes for employed persons also
recognise the principle of contributions by the employer. But
these contributions from the persons primarily concerned are not
sufficient, and the State has also a share in the responsibility for
the risks insured against. Hence all general insurance schemes
for employed persons require that the public authorities should
participate in providing the resources of the insurance fund or in
the payment of benefits. A substantial contribution is required
from the public authorities for the first generation of pensioners
especially and for the preventive health work carried out by
insurance schemes in the general interest.
INSURED PERSON'S CONTRIBUTIONS
The Conference was unanimous in adopting the Office proposals
and including in the Draft Conventions the principle that insured
persons and their employers should contribute to the financial
resources of the insurance scheme (Invalidity Conventions,
Article 10, paragraph 1; Old-Age Conventions, Article 9, paragraph 1; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 12, paragraph 1).
— 87 —
The principle that the insured persons should pay contributions
"was thus confirmed, but certain exceptions are allowed. National
laws or regulations may exempt from liability to pay contributions
certain categories of workers whose economic situation is particularly precarious (Invalidity Conventions, Article 10, paragraph 2;
Old-Age Conventions, Article 9, paragraph 2 ; Widows' and Orphans'
Conventions, Article 12, paragraph 2).
EMPLOYERS' CONTRIBUTIONS
The Conference also unanimously approved the principle of
contributions by the employer as a corollary to contributions by
the insured person. The only exception to the principle is that
employers' contributions may be dispensed with in schemes of
national insurance which are not restricted to employed persons
(Invalidity Conventions, Article 10, paragraph 3; Old-Age
Conventions, Article 9, paragraph 3; Widows' and Orphans'
Conventions, Article 12, paragraph 3).
The question arose whether the Draft Conventions should also
regulate the fixing of the relation between the employer's and the
insured person's contributions. A study of existing legislation
showed that it was impossible to lay down an absolute international
criterion. The rule that the employer's contribution should be
equal to the insured person's contribution is not respected in every
scheme. Since an imperative rule could not be laid down, the
Conference merely gave a general indication in the Recommendation to the effect that as a general rule the contribution of the
insured person should not be higher than the contribution of his
employer (Recommendation, paragraph 31).
The next question dealt with was the special provision to be
made for insured persons who are not remunerated in cash or
whose wages are very low. The Recommendation states that the
employer should be responsible for the whole or the greater part
of the joint contribution in respect of workers who are remunerated
only in kind, outworkers and apprentices whose remuneration does
not exceed a prescribed amount (Recommendation, paragraph 32).
SUBSIDIES FROM THE PUBLIC AUTHORITIES
All insurance schemes for employed persons in general or for
manual workers provide for financial assistance from the State,
and the Office had therefore proposed that the Draft Conventions
should make provision for the financial participation of the public
— 88 —
authorities in insurance schemes for the benefit of employed
persons in general or of manual workers.
The Conference was in agreement with this proposal and in order
to bring out the fact that substantial assistance is required from the
public authorities, it specified that these authorities should contribute to the financial resources or to the benefits of insurance
schemes (Invalidity Conventions, Article 10, paragraph 4; Old-Age
Conventions, Article 9, paragraph 4; Widows' and Orphans'
Conventions, Article 12, paragraph 4).
§ 10. — Administrative Organisation
Social insurance is a matter which concerns the general interest,
and the institutions responsible for administering it perform a
public duty. They should exercise all the powers that the law
has conferred on them, but should not engage in tasks of a nonsocial character. Social insurance should be administered by
institutions not conducted with a view to profit.
The Office had proposed that the Draft Conventions should lay
down the rule that the insurance schemes should be administered
by institutions founded by the public authorities and not conducted
with a view to profit. In order to make certain that State insurance
funds would be covered, the Conference decided to adopt a wider
formula, to the effect that the insurance schemes should be administered by institutions founded by the public authorities and not
conducted with a view to profit, or by State insurance funds, or
by institutions founded on the initiative of the parties concerned
or of their organisations and duly approved by the public authorities
(Invalidity Conventions, Article 11, paragraphs 1 and 2; Old-Age
Conventions, Article 10, paragraphs 1 and 2; Widows' and Orphans'
Conventions, Article 13, paragraphs 1 and 2).
The management of insurance institutions is autonomous within
the limits fixed by the law. This autonomy has two aspects, the
financial and the administrative.
The financial autonomy of insurance institutions entails separation of their funds from the public funds. The insurance funds
belong to the recipients, present and future, of insurance benefits.
They cannot be merged in the funds of the State or of other public
bodies, since they have been assigned once and for all for the
exclusive use of insured persons. The Conference unanimously
adopted the Office text and prescribed in the Draft Conventions
— 89 —
that the funds of insurance institutions and State insurance funds
should be administered separately from the public funds (Invalidity
Conventions, Article 11, paragraph 3; Old-Age Conventions,
Article 10, paragraph 3; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions,
Article 13, paragraph 3).
The Conference also agreed without opposition to the principle
that insurance institutions should enjoy administrative autonomy.
The Office had included in its draft texts an imperative provision concerning the participation of representatives of the insured persons
and an optional provision concerning the representation of the
employers and the public authorities: representatives of the
insured persons must participate in the management of the insurance institutions under conditions to be determined by national
laws or regulations, which may likewise decide as to the participation of representatives of employers and of the public authorities.
This was accepted unaltered by the Conference, which thus
recognised that the participation of representatives of the insured
persons is one of the essential characteristics of any compulsory
insurance scheme (Invalidity Conventions, Article 11, paragraph 4;
Old-Age Conventions, Article 10, paragraph 4; Widows' and
Orphans' Conventions, Article 13, paragraph 4).
In the Recommendation there is a clause stating that insured
women should be adequately represented on the administrative
bodies of the insurance institutions (Recommendation, paragraph 34).
The public authorities are responsible for seeing that social
insurance is completely and strictly applied, even when they do
not directly administer the scheme. The corollary of self-government is administrative and financial supervision by the public
authorities, and the Office proposal to this effect was unanimously
accepted by the Conference (Invalidity Conventions, Article 11,
paragraph 5; Old-Age Conventions, Article 10, paragraph 5;
Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 13, paragraph 5).
§ 11. — Settlement of Disputes
The efficacy of any insurance scheme depends on the proper
application of the rules that govern it. To protect the insured
persons and their survivors, as well as the employers who are
bound to contribute to the insurance funds, from arbitrary decisions,
most insurance laws grant them the right of appeal in case of
— 90 —
disputes affecting their rights or interests. The chief grounds of
such disputes are the liability to insurance, the rate .of contributions
payable, and the right to benefit.
DISPUTES CONCERNING BENEFITS
The Conference provided in the Draft Conventions on invalidity
and old age that the insured person or his legal representatives
should have a right of appeal in any dispute concerning benefits.
The same right was granted to the survivors of an insured person
or pensioner in the Conventions concerning widows' and orphans'
insurance. It was further decided that such disputes should be
referred to special tribunals including judges, whether professional
or not, who are specially cognisant of the purposes of insurance
and of the needs of insured persons, or are assisted by assessors
chosen from among insured persons and their employers ( Invalidity
Conventions, Article 12, paragraphs 1 and 2; Old-Age Conventions,
Article 11, paragraphs 1 and 2; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions,
Article 14, paragraphs 1 and 2).
DISPUTES CONCERNING LIABILITY TO INSURANCE
AND RATES OF CONTRIBUTIONS
In disputes concerning liability to insurance or the rate of
contributions, the Draft Conventions provide that the employed
persons should have a right of appeal, and that the employer
should have the same right in insurance schemes for employed
persons which provide for an employer's contribution.
The Conventions leave it to national legislation to decide which
courts should deal with disputes other than those concerning
benefits (Invalidity Conventions, Article 12, paragraph 3; Old-Age
Conventions, Article 11, paragraph 3; Widows' and Orphans'
Conventions, Article 14, paragraph 3).
§ 12. — Position of Foreigners
Existing invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' schemes
apply in principle to all workers without distinction of nationality;
but in many countries foreign workers have to fulfil certain special
conditions before being admitted to insurance or granted benefits.
These inequalities, which in some cases have been removed by
treaties of reciprocity, but as a rule only in respect of citizens of
— 91 —
the contracting States, should be done away with by international
regulations by their laying down the principle of equality of
treatment for national and foreign workers. To this end, the
Draft Conventions provide on the one hand that foreign employed
persons should be liable to insurance and to the payment of contributions under the same conditions as nationals, and, on the other,
that they and their dependants should be entitled under the same
conditions as nationals to the benefits derived from the contributions
credited to their account (Invalidity Conventions, Article 13,
paragraphs 1 and 2; Old-Age Conventions, Article 12, paragraphs 1
and 2; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 15, paragraphs 1 and 2).
In regard to such subsidies, supplements to or fractions of
pensions as are payable out of public funds, the Draft Conventions
cover only sums paid out of public funds under the normal provisions of the scheme and irrespective of the age of the insured person,
leaving national laws free to restrict to their own nationals the
advantages granted during the transitional period to insured persons
who had passed a certain age on the date the compulsory insurance
scheme came into force. The necessity for such a distinction is
obvious. Although a State when introducing a compulsory
insurance scheme may decide to make good, so to speak, the injustice done to its older subjects, for whom the insurance scheme
has come too late, by granting them subsidies or supplementary
pensions out of public funds, it can hardly be expected to accept
the same responsibility with regard to foreign workers who are at
the moment working in its territory, but who may have spent the
greater part of their working lives in their country of origin or
other countries, where they may even have been liable to insurance
(Invalidity Conventions, Article 13, paragraphs 3 and 4; Old-Age
Conventions, Article 12, paragraphs 3 and 4; Widows' and Orphans'
Conventions, Article 13, paragraphs 3 and 4).
Finally, the principle of equality of treatment is extended to
the conditions under which nationals of any State which has ratified
the Conventions should be entitled to their pensions in the event
of residence abroad. This provision is not directed at the general
conditions for the maintenance of pension rights in the case of
residence abroad, the whole of that problem having been postponed
for consideration in another Draft Convention. Its purpose is
merely to guarantee equality in the application of any restrictions
which may be laid down in the law of any country regarding
residence abroad. Such restrictions should riot apply to nationals
— 92 —
of any State Member which has ratified the Conventions if those
nationals are resident in the territory of another such Member,
except in so far as such restrictions would also apply to nationals
of the State in which the pension has been acquired, it being
understood that such subsidies, supplements to or fractions of
pensions as are payable out of public funds may be withheld (Invalidity Conventions, Article 13, paragraph 5; Old-Age Conventions,
Article 12, paragraph 5; Widows' and Orphans'' Conventions,
Article 15, paragraph 5).
Having thus dealt with the position of foreigners as regards
liability to insurance, contributions and benefits, the Conventions
next consider what law should apply in relations between States.
They provide that the insurance of employed persons shall be
governed by the law applicable at their place of employment,
provided that in the interest of continuity of insurance exceptions
may be made to this rule by agreement between the Members
concerned. Thus, the principle is laid down that the insurance
of employed persons should be governed by the law of their place
of employment, but at the same time the countries concerned are
left entirely free to make exceptions to this rule so as to prevent
frequent interruptions in the insurance of workers employed sometimes in one country and sometimes in another in the service of
a single employer (Invalidity Conventions, Article 14; Old-Age
Conventions, Article 13; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions,
Article 16).
The Conference did not feel it desirable to lay down definite
international rules for frontier workers whose place of employment
is in one country and whose place of residence is in another. The
provisions governing these workers vary from country to country,
and even within the same country in accordance with local requirements. The Conference therefore agreed that States should be
left free to prescribe special provisions for frontier workers (Invalidity Conventions, Article 15; Old-Age Conventions, Article 14;
Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 17).
The twofold question of the maintenance of rights in course
of acquisition and of rights acquired by migrant workers was
reserved, as already stated, for treatment in a separate Draft
Convention. This was adopted in 1935 and its essential provisions
are analysed later.
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B. — NON-CONTRIBUTORY
PENSIONS
§ 1. — Recognition of Non-Contributory Schemes in the International
Regulations
In a certain number of countries the risks of invalidity, old age,
and the loss of the breadwinner who leaves a widow and family
behind him are covered not by compulsory insurance legislation
but by non-contributory pension schemes in which no contributions
are paid, the resources being supplied out of public funds.
Non-contributory pension schemes exist at present in Australia,
Canada, Denmark, the Irish Free State, New Zealand, the Union
of South Africa and the United States, as well as in France, Great
Britain and Uruguay, but in the last three countries they have to
a large extent been replaced by compulsory insurance legislation,
The question therefore arose whether provisions concerning noncontributory pensions should be included in the international
regulations. This question the Conference answered in the affirmative, and consequently the six Draft Conventions include a number
of provisions concerning non-contributory pensions, with the
object on the one hand of guaranteeing an individual right to a
pension and excluding discretionary action by the authorities in'
regard to the method of granting or fixing the pensions, and on the
other of respecting the basic features of non-contributory pension
schemes, which differ considerably in structure from compulsory
social insurance schemes.
Certain objections were raised to this assimilation, even though
conditional, of non-contributory pension schemes to insurance
schemes. It was argued that it would scarcely be logical for the
Conference to express itself in favour of the principle of compulsory
insurance and then to adopt a scheme which had so little in common
with such insurance. Further, it was pointed out that the scope
of compulsory insurance is as a rule restricted to employed persons,
whereas the scope of a non-contributory pension scheme is always
vague, the beneficiaries not being known until the risk materialises.
In these circumstances how could provisions be drafted which
would confer an equivalent minimum degree of protection on the
workers and involve relatively equivalent social charges for Governments, considering that in non-contributory pension schemes the
limit of income above which a pension is not granted is generally
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much lower than the limit defining liability to compulsory insurance, 1 that the number of beneficiaries is comparatively small, and
that in effect these schemes are public assistance and not insurance.
These objections were not, however, considered decisive. The
Conference held that the idea of non-contributory pension schemes
should not be completely set aside in the international regulations,
if only in order to make countries having such schemes guarantee
a certain minimum degree of protection and to induce the greatest
possible number of States to bind themselves by an international
agreement.
The question of principle having been settled, discussion next
turned on the part to be played by non-contributory pension
schemes in the Draft Conventions. This discussion brought to
light two quite different conceptions of the place occupied by such
schemes in the historical development of legislation to meet the
risks of invalidity, old age and death.
Some of the delegates held that there were three stages in this
development : first, public assistance, under which benefits are paid
at the discretion of the assistance authorities ; then non-contributory
pension legislation, under which beneficiaries are granted the right
to a pension if they fulfil certain conditions; finally, compulsory
contributory insurance legislation. In their view the international
regulations should promote and speed up this development, but
should not permit a State which already had compulsory contributory
insurance legislation to abandon the system and return to noncontributory pensions, which they considered would be a retrograde
movement. For this reason it was suggested that the Draft
Conventions should only take account of non-contributory pension
schemes in existence at the time when they were voted by the
Conference.
Other delegates did not hold the view that non-contributory
pension schemes were an intermediate stage which must inevitably
lead to compulsory contributory insurance. They held that such
schemes, which require no contributions from the workers and
provide benefits for large sections of the population, might even be
regarded as a better method of covering the risks of invalidity,
old age and death than compulsory insurance schemes. They
therefore proposed that the international regulations should place
no obstacle in the way of the creation of new non-contributory
1
It may be added that this limit is not absolute and that many laws do not
fix a maximum wage above which there is no liability to insurance, at least as
regards manual workers.
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pension schemes, even after the Conventions were adopted, or of
the substitution of such schemes for existing compulsory insurance
legislation, either when the Conventions were being ratified by any
State or after ratification.
The text finally adopted provides that in countries which, at the
time when the Conventions first come into force, have no laws or
regulations providing for compulsory invalidity, old-age or widows*
and orphans' insurance, an existing non-contributory pension
scheme which guarantees an individual right to a pension under
the conditions defined in the Conventions shall be deemed to satisfy
the requirements of the Conventions (Invalidity Conventions,
Article 16; Old-Age Conventions, Article 15; Widows' and Orphans*
Conventions, Article 18).
§ 2. — Risks Covered
Non-contributory pension schemes cover one or more of the
following risks: invalidity, old age, and widowhood with family
responsibilities. The age for admission to an old-age pension is
usually 65 or 70 years. The risk of invalidity is covered only in
three countries, Australia, France and Uruguay, where pensions
are paid only in the event of permanent total incapacity.
The difference between compulsory insurance legislation and
non-contributory pension schemes is particularly marked in the
case of provision against death. Under compulsory insurance
legislation the widow of an insured person is entitled to a pension
even if she has no family responsibilities, with the proviso in some
cases that she is above a certain age or is an invalid. Under noncontributory pension legislation the right to a pension is granted
only to widows or wives who have been deprived of their husbands*
support and have young children to maintain.
The Draft Conventions specify that an old-age pension should
be awarded at an age to be determined by national laws or regulations but not exceeding 65 years, and that an invalidity pension
should be payable to any person who becomes generally incapacitated for work and thereby unable to earn an appreciable remuneration (Old-Age Conventions, Article 16; Invalidity Conventions,
Article 17).
With regard to the risk of death, the Conventions recognise
the right to a pension of every widow who has not remarried and
who has at least two dependent children, and of every orphan wha
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has lost both parents, leaving it to national laws or regulations to
define the age until which a child should be considered dependent
upon a widow or entitled to an orphan's pension, provided that
this age may in no case be less than 14 (Widows' and Orphans'
Conventions, Article 19).
§ 3. — Conditions oí Award
RESIDENCE CONDITION
Practically all non-contributory pension schemes require the
claimant to have been resident in the territory of the country in
which the claim is made for a certain number of years immediately
before applying for the pension. Two arguments are usually
advanced to justify this requirement of a minimum period of
residence in the State which pays the pension. In the first place,
it is held that no one should receive benefits from the public funds
of a community unless they have participated in the life of the
community for a certain period. In the second place, steps must
be taken to ensure that there will be no influx of immigrants who
are aged or disabled or threatened by invalidity or of widows with
family responsibilities who, if there were no condition of residence,
might flock from countries where no compulsory insurance schemes
or non-contributory pension schemes exist.
In view of the provisions adopted concerning the maximum
qualifying period under compulsory insurance and the provisions
of existing non-contributory pension legislation, the Draft Conventions provide that the right to a pension should be made conditional
upon the residence of the claimant in the territory of the State
paying the pension during a period immediately preceding the
making of the claim, and that this period should not exceed ten
years for an old-age pension and five years for an invalidity
pension (Old-Age Conventions, Article 17; Invalidity Conventions,
Article 18).
They also provide that the right to a widow's pension may be1
made conditional upon the residence in the territory of the State
in question of the deceased husband during a period immediately
preceding his death and of the widow during a period immediately
preceding the making of her claim, and similarly that the right to
an orphan's pension may be made conditional upon the residence,
in the territory of the State during a period immediately preceding
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death, of whichever of the parents died the more recently. These
periods should be fixed by national law, but should in no case
exceed five years (Widow's and Orphans' Conventions, Article 20).
ECONOMIC CONDITION: MEANS LIMIT
All non-contributory pension schemes prescribe as one of their
essential features a limit of annual income beyond which no
pensions are granted.
This principle was accepted by the Conference, and the Draft
Conventions leave it open to national laws and regulations to make
the payment of pensions conditional on an annual means limit
(Invalidity Conventions, Article 19, paragraph 1; Old-Age Conventions, Article 18, paragraph 1 ; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions,
Article 21, paragraph 1).
Amount of Means Limit
The protective value of non-contributory pension legislation
evidently depends to a great extent on the level at which the means
limit is fixed. It is impossible to determine from the legislation
of different countries what principles have been followed in fixing
this limit, and the rate of pensions is generally very low. If pensions
are to fulfil their purpose, they should, however, cover the essential
needs of beneficiaries who have no other resources.
The Draft Conventions accordingly provide that a claimant
should be entitled to a pension if his means do not exceed a limit
to be fixed by national laws or regulations with due regard to the
minimum cost of living (Invalidity Conventions, Article 19, paragraph 1; Old-Age Conventions, Article 18, paragraph 1; Widows'
and Orphans' Conventions, Article 21, paragraph 1).
Income not Reckoned towards Means Limit
As pensions are in principle granted to persons whose income
is not adequate for their support, their amount is higher when that
income is low. In a number of laws this general principle is modified
by an important corrective, the legislation specifying that certain
resources are not taken into account in reckoning means. The
purpose of this exemption, which may be general and cover all
income or capital not exceeding a certain limit, or may apply only
to certain kinds of resources, is to promote thrift.
The Conference agreed that for the purpose of assessing the
means of the claimant, means up to a level to be determined by
7
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national laws or regulations should be exempted (Invalidity
Conventions, Article 19, paragraph 2; Old-Age Conventions, Article 18, paragraph 2; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 21,
paragraph 2).
§ 4. — Computation of Pensions
In practically all non-contributory pension legislation the amount
of the pension depends on the resources of the claimant after
deducting such sums as may be exempt. Pensions may thus bear
a strict arithmetical relation to means or may be roughly adjusted
to them at the discretion of the authorities.
With the first method, the legislation defines exactly how the
means of the claimant beyond the exemption limit shall be taken into
account in determining the amount of the pension. There is then no
possibility of an arbitrary decision by the authorities, and any person
can reckon in advance the amount of the pension to which he is
entitled, and can appeal to the competent authorities if it is not paid.
With the second method, the authorities are left free to determine
the amount of the pension in view of the circumstances in each
particular case. This method has the advantage of being more
elastic than the former and of enabling the authorities to adjust the
pension more completely to individual conditions. On the other
hand, it has the disadvantage that it leaves the door open to every
kind of arbitrary decision and weakens the conception of the pension
as a right, acquired as soon as certain specified conditions are
fulfilled.
The Conference adopted an intermediate solution. The rate of
pension should be an amount which, together with any means of
the claimant in excess of the means exempted, is at least sufficient
to cover the essential needs of the pensioner (Invalidity Conventions,
Article 20; Old-Age Conventions, Article 19; Widows' and Orphans'
Conventions, Article 22).
§ 5. — Right of Appeal
The existence of a right of appeal is, or should be, one of the most
important features of non-contributory pension schemes. It is,
indeed, the recognition of this right which makes such schemes
superior to social assistance. If a claimant is refused a pension or
is granted a pension at a lower rate than he considers he is entitled
to claim, he must have the right of appeal against the decision of
— 99 —
the original authority, either to a higher administrative authority,
or to a special court, or to an ordinary court of law.
In point of fact, the right of appeal is far from being generally
recognised in legislation on non-contributory pensions. In many
States the decisions of the local authorities are beyond appeal. This is
exactly contrary to one of the conditions on which non-contributory
pension schemes can be treated on the same footing as social insurance
schemes, namely that they should guarantee an individual right
to a pension, acquired in clearly defined circumstances.
The Draft Conventions accordingly lay down two fundamental
principles. The claimant should have a right of appeal in any
dispute concerning the award of a pension or the rate thereof, and
the appeal should lie to an authority other than the authority which
gave the decision in the first instance (Invalidity Conventions,
Article 21 ; Old-Age Conventions, Article 20; Widows' and Orphans'
Conventions, Article 23).
§ 6. — Position of Foreigners
Non-contributory old-age or invalidity pensions are awarded
either as an expression of the social responsibility of the community
towards its members or as a return for services rendered to the
community by the claimants in the course of their working lives.
If the point of view of social responsibility is chiefly or exclusively
adopted, then the right to a pension will be restricted to nationals of
the country in question. If, on the other hand, the basic idea is that
of economic services rendered to the community, then the right to
a pension will be extended to aliens or at least to those who have
been resident in the country for a certain period and have therefore
been in a position to contribute to the prosperity of the country in
which they have worked, paid taxes, spent their earnings, etc.
Many old-age and invalidity pension laws do in fact require the
claimant to be a national of the State by which the pension is paid.
In the case of widows' and orphans' pensions the nationality
condition is not so strict. Less importance is attached to the
nationahty of the parents and especially that of the father. The
condition of nationality is still applied to the mother in a good many
national laws.
As non-contributory pensions are paid out of public funds, the
Conference approved a solution similar to that adopted under
compulsory insurance for the payment to foreigners of subsidies,
— 100 —
Supplements to or fractions of pensions out of public funds. In
other words, pensions should be granted under the same conditions
to nationals of the country and to nationals of other States which
have ratified the Conventions (Invalidity Conventions, Article 22,
paragraph 1; Old-Age Conventions, Article 21, paragraph 1;
Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 24, paragraph 1),
Nevertheless, in order to prevent any risk of immigration for the
sole purpose of obtaining a pension, and to ensure that the claimants
have contributed over a sufficiently long period to the prosperity
of the country of their adoption, the Conventions leave it to national
laws or regulations to make the award of a pension to foreigners
conditional upon the completion of a period of residence in the
territory of the State which may not exceed by more than five
years the period of residence prescribed for nationals (Invalidity
Conventions, Article 22, paragraph 2; Old-Age Conventions,
Article 21, paragraph 2; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions,
Article 24, paragraph 2).
§ 7. — Forfeiture or Suspension of Pensions
National laws generally specify a number of cases in which the
pension is forfeited or suspended. A pension may, for example, be
withheld, withdrawn, or suspended if the claimant or the pensioner
is not of good behaviour, has deserted his family, has been sentenced
to imprisonment, is a habitual beggar or drunkard etc.
The six Draft Conventions stipulate that the right to a pension
may be forfeited or suspended in whole or in part if the person
concerned has obtained or attempted to obtain a pension by
fraud, and may be suspended in whole or in part while he is being
entirely maintained at the public expense. In addition, the Draft
Conventions concerning old-age and invalidity contain clauses
providing for the forfeiture or suspension of the right to a pension
in whole or in part if the person in question has been sentenced to
imprisonment for a criminal offence or has persistently refused to
earn his living by work compatible with his strength and capacity.
Finally, the invalidity Conventions further provide that the right to
a pension may be forfeited or suspended in whole or in part if the
person concerned has brought about his invalidity by a criminal
offence or wilful misconduct (Invalidity Conventions, Article 23;
Old-Age Conventions, Article 22; Widows' and Orphans' Conventions, Article 25).
— 101 —
CHAPTER IV
MAINTENANCE OF MIGRANT WORKERS' PENSION RIGHTS
During its Nineteenth Session (1935) the Conference adopted a
Draft Convention concerning the establishment of an international
scheme for the maintenance of rights under invalidity, old-age and
widows' and orphans' insurance.
An account of the chief aspects of the problem with which the
Conference had to deal and of the solutions adopted is given below.
§ 1. — Problem of the Maintenance of Rights
In long-term insurance the rights of the insured person always
depend in one way or another on the time spent in insurance,
that is to say on the number and, in most insurance schemes, also
on the amount of the contributions paid during that time. Under
invalidity and survivors' insurance schemes the right to a pension
is always made conditional on the completion of a qualifying
period entailing the payment of a specified number of contributions,
either from the date of the insured person's entry into insurance
(e.g. 250 weekly contributions from the age of 16 years) or during
a specified period immediately preceding invalidity or death
(e.g. 100 weekly contributions during the last five years). In
old-age insurance, too, the time spent in insurance is a determining
factor, whether the right to a pension is conditional on the completion of a qualifying period or whether certain advantages, such
as a guaranteed minimum pension, are conditional on the payment
of a specified number of contributions on the insured person's
account. Moreover, apart from any guaranteed minimum pension,
the rate of the pension is determined in most countries by the
length of insurance. Another important factor in the problem is
that quite a number of insurance schemes make the right to a
pension conditional not only on the payment of the specified
number of contributions, but also on a certain degree of regularity
in their payment, the validity of paid-up contributions being
maintained only if a minimum number of fresh contributions are
paid within a prescribed time limit.
— 102 —
The Conference recognised at the outset that the conditions of
the qualifying period and of the maintenance of the validity of
contributions are impossible of fulfilment for workers whose
search for employment leads them to transfer to another country
and another insurance scheme. If at the time of his departure
to another country, the migrant has not completed his qualifying
period in the country of emigration, he is obliged to continue his
insurance in that country on pain of forfeiting the rights he is
in course of acquiring there. The insurance institution of his new
country of residence takes no account of the contributions paid
on his behalf in the other country, but requires him to complete
a new qualifying period and maintain his rights. Thus, if invalidity
or death occurs before the migrant has completed the qualifying
period prescribed under the insurance scheme of the country of
immigration, he and his family are deprived of all their rights.
In order to meet this situation, the Conference considered it
essential to organise the maintenance of rights in course of
acquisition on behalf of migrants.
The Conference went a step further, however, and examined the
other aspect of the problem of the maintenance of rights, that is,
the maintenance of acquired rights, recognising the necessity of
laying down as an international rule the principle of the maintenance
of rights acquired under invalidity, old-age and widows' and
orphans' insurance. Insurance benefits are provided in return for
the contributions paid and represent a strict legal right. Under
a number of national schemes, however, this rule is subject to
restriction in the case of insured persons resident abroad. The
continuation of the pension may be made subject to permission
from the administrative authorities ; the pension may be commuted
for a lump sum smaller than its capital value; or it may be
suspended in whole or in part so long as the claimant is resident
abroad. These restrictions are unfair to social insurance pensioners
who are obliged to change their country of residence, and the
Conference therefore decided that the rights acquired under
long-term insurance should be safeguarded under an international
scheme.
§ 2. — Maintenance of Rights in course of Acquisition
Among the various methods of maintaining the rights of workers
who have been insured successively with the institutions of two or
more countries, the Conference adopted that which establishes the
— 103 —
\
continuity of the migrant's insurance career. The insurance
periods spent by the migrant in various countries are regarded as
forming a continuous whole, so t h a t all these periods are taken into
account in each country and the migrant is no longer in danger of
forfeiting the benefit of the contributions paid on his behalf.
This method is empirical and only roughly accurate, but has t h e
advantage of simplicity. In deciding whether the migrant is
entitled to benefit, each institution takes into account not only the
insurance periods spent under its own scheme, but also those spent
with any other institution participating in the international scheme.
In return, each institution is entitled to deduct a specified proportion of the benefits or benefit components which are fixed without
regard to the time spent in insurance, the calculation of the other
benefits or benefit components being unaffected by the totalisation
of insurance periods.
• ^ ^ e rule of the totalisation of insurance periods was accepted
without -^position both by the Committee set up by the Conference
and subsequently at the plenary session. It applies to all persons
irrespective of nationality who have been affiliated to insurance
* ' v "^tutions in two or more States Members participating in the
intei. "\tional scheme established by the Draft Convention (Convention, Artige 2, paragraph 1).
A wider a ^ m t i o n of the insurance periods to be totalised is
allowed
of the maintenance of rights (which merely
consolidates previouSi\paid-up contributions) than in calculating
the qualifying period ^;hich establishes the right to benefit).
Contribution periods are totalised in any case, both for the purpose
of maintaining rights and for the completion of the qualifying
period. Periods for which no contributions were payable, on t h e
other hand, are totalised in calculating the qualifying period only
on the twofold condition that they would be taken into account
for this purpose both under the legislation governing the scheme
under which they were spent and under the legislation governing
the institution which is totalising. For the purpose of maintaining
rights, it is sufficient that such periods should be recognised by the
legislation under which they were spent (Article 2, paragraphs 2
and 3).
As stated above, the totalisation of insurance periods goes hand
in hand with the reduction of the benefits fixed without regard to
the time spent in insurance. The Conference had to lay down the
conditions under which this reduction should be applied and to
prescribe t h a t no reduction should be made in the benefits or
— 104 —
benefit components varying with the time spent in insurance and
unaffected by the totalisation of insurance periods. It therefore
decided that only those benefits which are determined independently
of the time spent in insurance may be reduced by each institution,
bejng reduced in the ratio of the periods spent with it to the total
of the periods of the migrant's insurance with all the institutions to
which he has successively belonged (Convention, Article 3, paragraphs 1-3).
The scheme for the maintenance of rights ensures that migrants
shall obtain a return for the payments made on their behalf in
the different countries. This does not prejudice the rights
of other insured persons, since the insurance institutions are
entitled to reduce some of the benefits due to migrants. Owing to
the fact that the insurance institutions may reduce the benefits
fixed irrespective of the time spent in insurance, it may happen in
individual cases that the total of the benefits calculated by the
different institutions is less than that which a single institution
would have had to pay on the basis of the insurance periods spent
under its scheme alone; in other words, in certain cases the
maintenance scheme might operate to the migrant's disadvantage. In
order to prevent this eventuality, the Conference approved a clause
guaranteeing to claimants receiving benefit in two or more countriep
a total sum at least equal to that to which they would have been
entitled in respect of the insurance periods spent with any one of
those countries (Article 5). This protective clause is of considerable
value to migrants and their dependants, because it ensures that in
any event they shall receive benefits as high as those of claimants
who have been insured in one country only.
The Conference confined itself to laying down the rules essential
to safeguard the rights of migrants, leaving the States Members
participating in the international scheme as much freedom as was
compatible with the object of the scheme.
The Members concerned may by agreement make provision
for the reckoning of benefits by any other method, provided that
such method does not injure the rights of migrant workers
Article 6 (a)).
Members may also agree to discharge their liability to the insured
person and his dependants by paying to the insurance institution
of the country to which he has emigrated the capital representing
the rights in course of acquisition by him at the date of his departure,
the latter institution undertaking to apply the capital in the sole
interest of the migrant concerned (Article 6 (&))•
— 105 —
§ 3. — Maintenance of Acquired Rights
A social insurance pensioner who has to leave the country in
which the institution liable for the payment of his pension is
established must be able to maintain in his new country of residence
the rights acquired under the insurance scheme of the first country.
In accordance with the results of the consultation of Governments
the Office had suggested to the Conference that a distinction
should be made between benefits acquired as a result of contributions paid and benefit components payable out of public funds.
The Committee of the Conference maintained this distinction.
In the case of benefits acquired in return for contributions paid,
it accepted the view that these should be secured to persons who
had been insured in a State Member participating in the international scheme, irrespective of their nationality, so long as they
continued to reside in the territory of any such Member. The
Conference decided that the maintenance of acquired rights should
be confined to persons resident in the territory of a Member
participating in the scheme, unless they are nationals of such a
Member, when they retain their right to benefits acquired in
return for contributions paid, irrespective of their place of
residence (Convention, Article 10, paragraph 1).
As regards benefit components payable out of public funds, the
Office had proposed that Members participating in the scheme
should have the option of making their payment conditional on
the fulfilment of a twofold condition respecting the nationality of
the pensioner and his country of residence. Pension components
provided out of public funds would in that case be paid abroad
only to nationals of a Member participating in the international
scheme who reside in the territory of such a Member.
On this point an amendment was moved in the Committee set
up by the Conference, reserving the settlement of the whole
question of the payment abroad of supplements to or fractions of
pensions payable out of public funds for supplementary agreements
between the Members concerned.
This amendment was carefully considered by the Committee.
Its author pointed out that benefit components payable out of
public funds were of a different nature from insurance benefits
and had the character of assistance rather than insurance. It was
also probable that those countries of immigration which generally
make large grants to social insurance might be unwilling to assume
too extensive liabilities in respect of the payment abroad of such
— 106 —
supplements to or fractions of pensions as are payable out of
public funds.
Against these arguments it was objected that the source of the
funds, whether they are derived from contributions or from subsidies from the public authorities, was not a valid reason for
restricting or reducing the rights of the insured persons, and that
such supplements to or fractions of pensions as are payable out
of public funds also formed an essential element in insurance.
Following a lengthy discussion, during which the views both of
emigration and of immigration countries were put forward, a
compromise was reached thanks to the conciliatory spirit shown
by the delegates. In accordance with the Office's suggestions the
text finally adopted by the Conference provides that the international scheme shall cover pension components payable out of
public funds, but that in the event of the pensioner's residence
abroad the payment of these components shall be guaranteed only
to the nationals of a Member participating in the scheme. Moreover,
during the first five years of the application of the scheme the
States Members assume no liability for the payment abroad of
pension components payable out of public funds, being bound
during this period only by any supplementary agreements they
may have concluded among themselves (Convention, Article 10,
paragraphs 2 and 3).
The Conference also decided that the pensions to be maintained
under the international scheme may not be commuted for a lump
sum smaller than their capital value, but it allowed the commutation
for a lump sum, calculated according to the laws and regulations
governing the institution liable, of pensions the monthly value of
which is inconsiderable (Convention, Article 11).
§ 4. — Mutual Assistance in Administration
The application of the scheme for the maintenance of pension
rights requires regular co-operation between the insurance institutions and administrative and judicial authorities responsible for
applying the insurance legislation of the Members participating in
the scheme. The organisation of mutual assistance is essential for
the efficient operation of the scheme.
The Conference therefore laid down a number of rules to govern
co-operation between the authorities and insurance institutions of
the States Members concerned. The Draft Convention provides
that these authorities and institutions shall afford each other
— 107 —
mutual assistance, that the privilege of exemption from fees
allowed under the legislation of any one Member in respect of
documents furnished to^ts authorities or insurance institutions
shall be extended to the corresponding documents furnished to
the authorities and insurance institutions of any other Member,
and that the insurance institution of the beneficiary's place of
residence may, at the request of the institution liable, undertake
the payment of benefits, etc.
In so far as the Members concerned do not otherwise agree, the
expenses of administrative assistance are repayable by the institution which has asked for assistance (Convention, Articles 14-16).
§ 5. — Operation of International Scheme
The international scheme for the maintenance of pension rights
will create close and regular relations between the Members
participating in the scheme and their insurance institutions, and
the Conference therefore had to lay down the conditions for the
operation of the scheme.
With this object it first defined the liabilities to be undertaken by
the States Members in regard to the nature and scope of long-term
insurance.
In consideration of the fact that the participation in the scheme
of a State Member which had not established any kind of compulsory
long-term insurance would be valueless to other Members, the
Office text had provided that any Member which had not already
introduced a compulsory old-age insurance scheme providing for
the payment of pensions at an age not later than 65 years should
undertake to set up such a scheme, covering the majority of persons
employed in industrial and commercial undertakings, within twelve
months after the registration of its ratification. The Committee
of the Conference approved this proposal but wished to make it
easier for Members to participate in the international scheme.
It therefore proposed to the Conference, which adopted the
suggestion without opposition, that Members adhering to the
international scheme should set up at their own choice, and within
twelve months after the registration of their ratification, either a
compulsory old-age insurance scheme for the majority of persons
employed in industrial and commercial undertakings or a scheme of
insurance against the three risks of invalidity, old age and death
covering a substantial proportion of the persons employed in
industrial and commercial undertakings (Convention, Article 17).
— 108 —
As the international scheme is intended to protect the rights of
migrant workers, in particular of those who are nationals of a
Member participating in the scheme, the Draft Convention provides
that each Member shall treat the nationals of other Members
participating in the scheme on the same footing as its own nationals
for the purpose of liability to compulsory insurance and of insurance
benefits, including benefit components payable out of public funds
(Article 18, paragraph 1).
The coming into force of the Draft Convention to establish an
international scheme for the maintenance of pension rights is
governed by the same rules as apply to most of the other Draft
Conventions adopted by the Conference. The scheme will come
into force twelve months after the registration of its ratification
by two States Members, and subsequently for each Member twelve
months after the registration of its ratification (Article 24). It
remained for the Conference to specify the effects of the scheme in
regard to insurance periods completed and rights acquired before
it came into force. It was decided that in applying the scheme
account should be taken of insurance periods completed prior to
its coming into force, and that claims settled previously should be
reviewed under specified conditions, provided that such review
does not involve the payment of arrears of, or the refund of, benefits
for the period prior to the coming into force of the Convention
(Article 21).
By the decisions described above the Conference set up a complete
and detailed scheme for the maintenance of rights in invalidity,
old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance. In order to facilitate
its application, it empowered the Members concerned to enter into
mutual agreements regarding the methods of applying the rules
governing the maintenance of rights. With this object it provided
for the establishment in connection with the International Labour
Office of a Commission consisting of one delegate for each Member,
together with three persons appointed respectively by the Government, Employers' and Workers' groups of the Governing Body.
It will be the duty of this Commission to assist the national
authorities concerned by making recommendations as to the
manner in which the Convention is to be applied (Article 20).
In view of the existence of special treaties concluded between
certain States Members to regulate the maintenance of rights in
pension insurance, the Conference thought it advisable to give
States Members participating in the general scheme the power of
derogating from its provisions by special treaty. Members who
— 109 —
agree to do so will therefore be at liberty to observe in their mutual
relations rules other than those sanctioned by the Conference,
provided that such rules are at least as favourable on the whole as
the general regulations provided by the Convention (Article 19).
The Conference thus gave the Convention as much flexibility
as is compatible with its essential object, which is to enable persons
insured under social insurance schemes who are obliged by the
vicissitudes of their existence to change their country of residence
to receive as a definite right in return for their provident effort
a fair share in insurance benefits.
— 110 —
CHAPTER V
SOME FINAL OBSERVATIONS
By adopting, at its 1935 Session, a Draft Convention providing
for an international scheme for the maintenance of rights under
invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance, the
International Labour Conference completed the cycle of general
Conventions concerning workmen's compensation for accidents,
sickness insurance and invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans'
insurance.
The body of international regulations due to the efforts of the
Conference represents a considerable achievement.
Although
achieved in several stages, the work of the Conference forms an
organic whole and lays down an entire programme of action,
defining a policy to be followed in the field of social insurance.
This achievement, but just completed, must now undergo the
test of time and will no doubt have to be revised some day to
bring it into line with future economic and social developments.
But as it stands to-day it has already proved itself well adapted
to the purposes for which it was devised and carried out.
This is shown by the fact that by November 1935 a total of
97 ratifications, coming from 35 different States Members, had
already been registered for the Draft Conventions concerning
workmen's compensation for accidents and sickness insurance
alone; those dealing with invalidity, old-age and widows' and
orphans' insurance still await the decision of the competent
authorities in the majority of countries.
This is an impressive figure; it reflects the results as a whole
and bears witness to a will to progress which is common to a
great many of the States Members of the Organisation. Behind
the.figures is marshalled an unsuspected sum of effort, for in each
country every decision in favour of ratification is scrupulously
weighed in the course of debates at which all the special interests
concerned are brought face to face.
But although the total figure for the number of ratifications
registered for a group of Conventions may impress the imagination,
— ill —
it gives a very incomplete notion of the real effects attaching t o
the formal act of registration. In order properly to grasp these
effects, each ratification should be considered separately, its
significance varying according to the Convention concerned and
the social and economic structure of the ratifying country. Before
assigning its due weight to every ratification, the Conventions also
should be considered one by one, and the amendments each
ratifying country has been obliged to make in its national legislation
to bring it into harmony with the international provisions should
be examined. Moreover, in order to ascertain to what extent a
Convention has really affected the decisions of the national
legislature in each country and the protection guaranteed t o
persons covered by its social insurance schemes, it would be
necessary to study all the preparatory work which led up t o
ratification, a long and tedious process which would go beyond t h e
scope of the present purpose. The sole object of the following
observations is to give, with the help of a few typical examples,
a very general idea of the progress achieved in consequence of t h e
ratification of certain social insurance Conventions.
1. The Convention concerning workmen's compensation for
accidents gave international sanction to the principle of occupational risk, which it definitively substituted for the principle of
the employer's liability in connection with industrial accidents.
The 16 ratifications obtained by this Convention to date represent
so many international undertakings to ensure that the workers
injured as a result of industrial accidents, and their dependants,
shall obtain compensation on terms at least equal to those provided
by the Convention. The most important of these terms relate t o
the scope of the laws and regulations governing compensation or
accident insurance and the form to be taken by compensation for
accidents resulting in permanent incapacity or death; there are
also specific provisions dealing with the injured workers' right to
the medical, surgical and pharmaceutical aid necessary in consequence of the accident, and with the measures to be taken to
ensure that injured workers and their dependants shall actually
receive the benefits due.
As regards the scope of the legislation providing for workmen's
compensation or accident insurance, the engagement entered into
by ratification implies the obligation to apply the relevant laws
and regulations, subject to a few exceptions permitted by t h e
Convention, to all workmen, employees and apprentices employed
by any enterprise, undertaking or establishment of whatsoever
— 112 —
nature, whether public or private. 1 The general formula thus
sanctioned b y the Convention implies the renunciation by the
ratifying countries of the power to fix or maintain a limitative list
of the undertakings to which the principle of occupational risk
applies. This renunciation precludes all possibility of an arbitrary
limitation of the accident compensation scheme, and indeed
several countries were actually obliged, on ratifying the Convention,
to abolish certain restrictions formerly imposed on the scope of
their accident compensation or insurance schemes in order to
comply with the obligation assumed under the Convention. Moreover, as the Convention applies without distinction to all workers,
employees and apprentices, and does not allow the fixing of a
wage limit except in the case of non-manual workers, ratification
also implies the abolition of a wage limit applicable to every
class of worker.
This twofold obligation assumed by States
Members ratifying the Convention in respect of the undertakings
and workers covered by the scheme commits them to the general
application of the principle of occupational risk.
The Convention provides that the compensation due in the case
of accidents resulting in permanent incapacity or death must be
paid in the form of a pension, thus abolishing the system of paying
compensation in the form of a lump sum fixed without regard to
the age of the injured worker. This rule marks a notable advance
in t h a t it increases the economic and social security afforded to
the injured worker and his dependants.
The same is true of the provision conferring on workers injured
in accidents the right to medical aid and to such surgical and
pharmaceutical aid as is recognised to be necessary in consequence
of the accident, and also of that relating to the supply and normal
renewal of all necessary artificial limbs and surgical appliances.
Practically every country ratifying the Convention has had to
amend its national law and practice in order to bring it into
conformity with these articles, which set no limit of time to the
injured worker's right to these benefits.
Without going so far as to lay down definite rules to guarantee
the workers against the insolvency of the employer, the Convention
nevertheless places States Members which ratify it under the
obligation to ensure the payment of compensation to injured
workers and their dependants in all circumstances and to safeguard
1
Compensation for occupational accidents in agriculture is, however,
governed by a special Convention; cf. infra, p. 113.
— 113 —
them against the insolvency of the employer or insurance carrier.
While remaining free to devise such system of guarantees as they
may consider most suitable, the States Members party to the
Convention may not evade the obligation to take measures to
ensure that the injured workers and their dependants shall actually
receive the compensation due. In practice, ratifying countries
discharge this obligation either by making it compulsory for
employers to insure with institutions approved and supervised by
the public authorities, or, where insurance is not compulsory, by
setting up a guarantee fund financed by uninsured employers and
required to step in should any such employer become insolvent.
H ere again, as on many other points regulated by the Convention,
a real advance in the direction of wider protection of the rights
of workers injured in industrial accidents has been made in many
of the countries party to the Convention.
2. The Convention concerning workmen's compensation for
accidents in agriculture provides for the extension of the scheme
providing compensation for the victims of occupational accidents
to cover all agricultural workers.
This Convention has received 20 ratifications up to date, giving
the agricultural wage earners of the countries concerned the
assurance of inclusion in the compensation scheme and an equal
title with industrial workers to the protection of national legislation. The States Members recognise by ratifying this Convention
that the principle of occupational risk applies also to agriculture,
and assume a strict liability to provide against this risk, thus
putting an end to all arbitrary discrimination against agricultural
workers.
Even without the Convention, the principle of occupational
risk would doubtless have been extended in due course to agricultural workers also, but the Convention has played an important
part in speeding up the movement in favour of equality of rights
for agricultural workers by giving this principle the sanction of
an international rule.
3. The Convention concerning equality of treatment for national
and foreign workers as regards workmen's compensation for accidents
has a different purpose: that of abolishing, as between States
Members party to the Convention and for the benefit of nationals
of such countries, the exceptions to the rules governing accident
compensation hitherto prescribed in respect of injured workers of
foreign nationality and their dependants. The Convention provides
8
— 114 —
that every ratifying country shall grant to the nationals of any
other Member which has also ratified the same treatment in respect
of workmen's compensation as it grants to its own nationals, this
equality of treatment being guaranteed to foreign workers and
their dependants without any condition as to residence.
The 34 ratifications registered up to November 1935 testify to
the full success of the Conference's efforts to free the right to
compensation from all restrictions based on nationality or place
of residence. A large number of States Members have responded
to the Conference's appeal to abolish in their relations with each
other all discriminatory treatment based on the political status of
workers injured in industrial accidents. This undertaking has a
twofold bearing : in the first place, it ensures that in every country
party to the Convention the nationals of all other countries which
have also ratified it shall enjoy equality of treatment with that
country's own nationals, and secondly, it makes this right independent of any condition as to residence.
When the Convention was adopted in 1925 there were very few
countries whose legislation granted the same rights to aliens as to
their own nationals, and the restrictions to which the former were
subject were both many and serious, resulting in some cases in
the loss of all rights. But under the stimulus of the Convention
and thanks to the action taken by Members which have ratified
it, the application of the principle of equality of treatment has
been very considerably extended during recent years.
The scheme introduced by the Convention already covers
hundreds of thousands of workers and their dependants, and their
numbers are increasing with every new ratification. The recognition
of the principle that the right to compensation is inviolable and
unaffected by conditions of nationality and residence represents a
very considerable advance in the field of social progress. Undoubtedly the prospect of reciprocity provided by the Convention
has contributed very largely to its success, but even apart from
this principle of reciprocity the Convention has carried out a most
effective social campaign on behalf of equality of treatment in
respect of workmen's compensation for accidents.
4. The 16 ratifications of the Draft Convention concerning
sickness insurance for workers in industry and commerce so far
registered commit the countries concerned to a formal undertaking
to introduce and maintain a system of compulsory sickness insurance
based on provisions at least equal to those contained in the Convention, and to apply this system to manual and non-manual
— 115 —
workers and apprentices employed by industrial and commercial
undertakings, outworkers and domestic servants. Of the 16
countries which have adhered to this Convention 11 have also
ratified the Draft Convention concerning sickness insurance for
agricultural workers, thus undertaking the obligation to apply
compulsory sickness insurance to workers in agriculture and
similar occupations.
The obligations assumed by ratification do not relate solely to
the scope of the insurance scheme to be set up. The Conventions
contain other equally definite provisions, which include in particular
articles conferring on insured persons who are incapable of work
the right to the payment of cash benefit intended to make good
the loss of their earnings for a specified period and the right to
treatment by a fully qualified medical practioner and to the
supply of proper and sufficient medicines and appliances. Provision
is also made for the administration of insurance by self-governing
institutions, under the administrative and financial supervision of
the competent public authority and not carried on with a view
to profit, for the participation of the insured persons and their
employers in providing the financial resources of the insurance
scheme, and for the granting to the insured person of a right of
appeal in case of dispute concerning his right to benefit.
In order to discharge the obligation concerning the scope of the
Convention, certain ratifying countries have found themselves
obliged to enlarge their definition of the persons liable to compulsory
insurance and to abolish exceptions of which the Convention does
not allow. Others have had to extend to 26 weeks the shorter period
formerly fixed for the payment of cash benefit in the event of incapacity for work, while some have had to remove the conditions
previously attached to the grant of medical aid, since the Conventions
allow the fixing of a qualifying period only in respect of cash benefit
and not of benefits in kind. In measuring the extent of the progress
made, the changes and improvements thus introduced in the benefit
schemes of previously established insurance systems deserve to be
taken into consideration equally with the introduction of entirely
new insurance schemes set up in fulfilment of the obligation
undertaken by ratifying the Convention.
The Draft Conventions concerning invalidity, old-age and
widows' and orphans' insurance have not yet formally come into
force, so that as yet there are no material results to record
— 116 —
Nevertheless, these regulations, adopted when the economic
depression was at its worst and in response to a widespread demand
for economic and social security, seem destined in the near future
to give an impetus to rapid and far-reaching action leading to
fresh practical results.
But even before their ratification these Draft Conventions have
already begun to exercise a real and definite influence by the mere
fact of their adoption by the Conference, for the Conference
decisions, based as they are on a comprehensive international
comparison of the experiments made and experience gained,.
represent general agreement as to the best lines of action for the
future. Ratification is, of course, of vital importance in the case
of all Conventions, for only when officially ratified do they create
a real network of reciprocal obligations, protected by guarantees as
to their application and involving international responsibilities. But
it is nevertheless true that the decisions adopted by the Conference
in the form of Draft Conventions and Recommendations have
manifold effects going far beyond the mere measures attaching to
ratification and stimulating the development of social insurance.
The principles on which the decisions of the Conference are
based have indeed proved themselves a stimulus to action on a
wide scale, quite apart from any kind of formal undertaking, and
the merit for this is due to the prudent yet steady will to progress
by which they are inspired. The international scheme for the
regulation of social insurance, built up of the elements and methods
that have best stood the test of experience, represents an integration
of all the tendencies that have characterised the development of
insurance. It is at one and the same time a driving force leading
to fresh conquests and a check to prevent backsliding, the focus
for national movements in their path to progress.
The work of the International Labour Conference, as a complete
and general plan of social security, is followed with special attention
in those countries which, under its influence, are just beginning to
build up a social insurance scheme. The measures proposed in the
Conventions and Recommendations are confidently adopted and
determine the general trend of the new social insurance laws. Even in
countries in which social insurance is already an old-established
institution, and which have their own traditions in the matter,
the Conventions and Recommendations often furnish the occasion
for a review of the legislation in force or affect the course of reforms
already in progress. A study of the decisions of the Conference
does not, of course, invariably lead to the immediate adoption of
— 117 —
measures which are entirely in harmony with those proposed by
the Conference, but it does lead in the majority of cases to an
approximation which gives promise of full conformity in the
near future.
It is not possible within the scope of this study to enquire more
closely into the manifold effects of the work of the Conference.
Its results are substantial, and in one form or another its influence
is constantly present in the development of ideas and of legislation.
*
*
*
It is the function of the International Labour Office, as the
organ for preparing the Conference decisions and at the same time
for centralising and disseminating all information bearing on the
international regulation of the workers' status and conditions of
employment, to second the activity of the Conference.
In addition to the documents serving as the instruments for the
work of those Sessions of the Conference which have dealt with
questions of social insurance (Grey Reports, questionnaires, Blue
Reports *) the Social Insurance Section of the Office has also had
to prepare technical studies dealing with the various kinds of
insurance on the agenda of the successive Sessions of the Conference
and containing an analysis of national legislation and of the results
of its application.2
This series of technical reports has rapidly earned high appreciation among those responsible for drafting the relevant Bills and
regulations. Government departments and insurance institutions,
the committees of experts responsible for the preparatory work,
rapporteurs, and even Parliamentary committees, have fallen into
the habit of consulting these volumes with a view to obtaining
information on the solutions adopted in social insurance problems
and taking advantage of the experience gained in other countries.
This practice of international research and comparison, originated
and encouraged by the publications of the International Labour
Office, has helped very largely to give international currency to
such ideas and methods as have proved useful and feasible.
Although at first mainly confined to European countries, the
movement of interest in social insurance questions aroused by the
publications of the Office has long since spread to oversea countries,
which are now fully committed to a social insurance policy.
1
2
Cf. pp. 22-25.
Cf. pp. 12-18.
— 118 —
Documentary works conceived on general lines obviously cannot
exhaust all the problems of a legislative and administrative order
arising in connection with social insurance. Those responsible for
the preparation of social insurance schemes and for the administration of central insurance institutions are applying more and more
often to the Office for international documentation. In some
cases indeed—and these are becoming increasingly frequent—the
Office is directly associated with the preparation of social insurance
measures. Draft legislation is submitted to it for an opinion on
the general lines of a proposed insurance scheme or on the amendments to be made in existing legislation in order to meet new
possibilities or requirements. The Office is also sometimes invited
to send a representative to sit on the national technical or administrative committees charged with the duty of preparing for the
introduction of new legislation or the reform of a scheme already
in force. These are so many opportunities for the Office to apply
the lessons taught by the comparison of the experience of different
countries, to deduce from this experience authoritative principles
of action, and to guide the action taken by the individual countries
into channels consistent with the decisions of the Conference.
The Office is now about to supplement its work of information
and collaboration to promote the development of social insurance
and the application of the principles of the Convention by a
series of studies undertaken in response to insistent demands and
to be carried out with the help of its International Committee of
Experts on Social Insurance. The Social Insurance Section has
drawn up a scheme of international studies based on the most
pressing of the suggestions received and those of the most obvious
current importance, on subjects of vital concern to any rationally
organised system of insurance: studies of actuarial technique
bearing on the statistical basis, actuarial estimates and financial
organisation of invalidity, old-age and survivors' insurance ; studies
of financial technique describing the methods followed in the
administration of the finances of long-term insurance ; medico-social
studies to determine the most efficient and economical methods
of organising medical and pharmaceutical benefits under sickness
insurance, etc.
Thus a new phase is now opening in the development of the
work of the International Labour Office. The preparation of texts
establishing a co-ordinated system of rules for the organisation of
complete social insurance schemes has been succeeded by the
— 119 —
study of the measures introduced by Governments, and in many
cases by co-operation with them in applying these principles.
With the studies now on its programme, which it intends to carry
out with the aid of its tried methods of investigation, the Office
hopes to make yet another contribution to the improvement of
social insurance by determining in each case the solutions for
which the problems studied call and which promise to ensure the
most effective and efficient operation of the institutions.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX I
Texts of the General Resolution concerning Social Insurance and of the
Draft Conventions and Recommendations adopted by the International
Labour Conference on Workmen's Compensation, Sickness Insurance,
and Invalidity, Old-Age, and Survivors' Insurance
The text of the general resolution concerning social insurance adopted
by the International Labour Conference at its 1925 session, together
with those of the draft Conventions and Recommendations adopted
at its 1925, 1927, 1933, and 1935 sessions, are given below.
The texts are grouped according to subject, and are given in the order
of their adoption by the Conference at its successive sessions.
The order-numbers attached to the various draft Conventions and
Recommendations are those appearing in the brochure containing the
texts of all the Draft Conventions and Recommendations adopted by
the Conference at its eighteen sessions, held 1919-1934,1 published by
the International Labour Office.
It must be pointed out that Draft Conventions adopted by the
Conference become effective when the number of ratifications specified
in the text have been registered. To the text of each Convention a note
is given, showing the date on which it came into force and the States
whose ratification had been received by 1 November 1935.
A. — GENERAL RESOLUTION CONCERNING SOCIAL INSURANCE
Resolution adopted by the International Labour Conference
at its Seventh Session (1925)
Whereas the maintenance of a healthy and vigorous labour supply is of
capital importance, not only for wage earners themselves, but also for industrial
communities desirous of developing their productive capacity;
i INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION: Draft Conventions and Recommendations
adopted by the International Labour Conference at its eighteen sessions held 1919-1934.
International Labour Office, Geneva, 1934. Price: 3 Swiss francs.
For Convention No. 48, see INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE: Official Bulletin, Vol.
XX, No. 3, 15 August 1935, pp. 74-83.
— 122 —
And whereas this development is only attainable by constant and systematic
endeavour to obviate all avoidable loss or diminution in the efficiency or
earning capacity of wage earners;
And whereas a system of labour regulations, if true to the principle of
social justice, must secure the effective protection of the workers against
risks endangering their livelihood, or that of their families ;
And whereas this protection can best be attained by means of the establishment of a system of social insurance granting clearly defined rights to the
beneficiaries,
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation, having
noted that
Several States have secured their working-class population against occupational and non-occupational risks by establishing systems of social insurance
covering almost all workers and their families, and that these systems
(1) Give to insured persons the right, when the risks materialise, to claim
benefits by way of payments in kind and in money, enabling them to resume
their place in the productive life of the community, or, failing this, assuring
them and their families, if not full compensation for the damage sustained,
at least a reasonable minimum standard of life as understood in their time and
country, or a basis on which to maintain such a standard;
(2) Usually derive their income from contributions paid by employers
and workers and from grants out of public funds (except in the* case of loss
resulting from industrial accidents and occupational diseases, the responsibility for insurance against which as a rule rests entirely upon employers) ;
(3) Establish through comprehensive mutual insurance institutions administered by t h e employers and workers directly interested, or by the State
in collaboration with them, an organisation designed to encourage thrift and
to improve the conditions of life of the insured persons;
And desiring not only to remove conditions which may constitute an obstacle
to the efforts of Members who desire to expand and improve their system of
social insurance, but also to profit by all the valuable experience obtained
in various countries, and recalling the decisions taken at previous Sessions,
especially those concerning unemployment, employment of women before and
after childbirth and workmen's compensation for industrial accidents,
(1) Requests the Governing Body of the International Labour Office to
place the question of general sickness insurance for workers on the Agenda
of an early Session of the Conference, if possible that of 1927, and on the
Agenda of the same or succeeding Sessions (due regard being had to the close
connection between the various branches of social insurance) the questions of
invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance;
(2) Decides that the useful work already performed by the International
Labour Office in collecting information with regard to social insurance should
be continued, and should include the collection and distribution of information
concerning :
(a) The progress of legislation and regulations regarding all branches of
social insurance;
(b) The results obtained in the various countries and for the various branches
of social insurance, especially with regard to the classes and number of
beneficiaries and insured persons, the nature and extent of the benefits
granted, the funds required and the manner of distributing financial
responsibility amongst the different classes of contributors, the employment of reserves and the expenses incurred by insurance institutions
on account of benefits and costs of administration.
The information furnished by the International Labour Office should give
in detail, as far as possible, for each country and for each risk:
(a) The classes and number of workers covered, i.e. whether independent
workers, workers for salaries or wages and others, and also the occupations covered (distinguishing between compulsory and voluntary
systems) ;
— 123 —
(6) Similarly the classes and numbers not covered by the systems;
(c) The benefits, (i) nature, i.e. in kind or in cash, (ii) amount, (iii) duration, (iv) conditions attached;
(d) How the cost is borne, (i) by the State or other public authority,
(ii) by the employer, (iii) by the persons covered;
(e) The total annual cost under heads (d), (i), (ii), and (iii), with the
proportion of the workers' and employers' contributions to the wages
paid;
(/) Precise methods of administration centrally and locally;
(g) The expenditure annually, (i) on benefits, (ii) on administration and
the numbers who received each kind of benefit, and the economic
effects of the system as a whole in each country;
(h) The use of social insurance reserves for the improvement of public
health ;
(i) The educational methods for the teaching and practice of social
insurance.
B. — WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION
Draft Convention [No. 12] concerning workmen's compensation
in agriculture *
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Third Session on
25 October 1921, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard
to the protection of agricultural workers against accident, which is
included in the fourth item of the agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a draft
international convention,
adopts the following Draft Convention for ratification by the Members of
the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with the provisions of
Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding Parts of the
other Treaties of Peace:
ARTICLE 1
Each Member of the Internationa] Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention undertakes to extend to all agricultural wage earners its laws and
regulations which provide for the compensation of workers for personal
injury by accident arising out of or in the course of their employment.
ARTICLE 2
The formal ratifications of this Convention under the conditions set forth
in Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding Parts of
the other Treaties of Peace shall be communicated to the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations for registration.
i This Convention came into force on 26 February 1923. It had been ratified on 1 November 1935 by Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Denmark, Estonia, France,
Germany, Great Britain, Irish Free State, Italy, Latvia, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Nicaragua. Poland, Spain. Sweden and Uruguay.
_ 124 —
ARTICLE 3
This Convention shall come into force at the date on which the ratifications
of two Members of the International Labour Organisation have been registered
by the Secretary-General.
It shall then be binding only upon those Members whose ratifications
have been registered with the Secretariat.
Thereafter, the Convention shall come into force for any Member at the
date on which its ratification has been registered with the Secretariat.
ARTICLE 4
As soon as the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour
Organisation have been registered with the Secretariat, the Secretary- General
of the League of Nations shall so notify all the Members of the International
Labour Organisation. He shall likewise notify them of the registration of
ratifications which may be communicated subsequently by other Members
of the Organisation.
ARTICLE 5
Subject to the provisions of Article 3, each Member which ratifies this
Convention agrees to bring the provisions of Article 1 into operation not
later than 1 January 1924, and to take such action as may be necessary to
make these provisions effective.
ARTICLE 6
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention engages to apply it to its colonies, possessions and protectorates
in accordance with the provisions of Article 421 of the Treaty of Versailles
and of the corresponding Articles of the other Treaties of Peace.
ARTICLE 7
A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the
expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes
into force, by an act communicated to the Secretary-General of the League
of Nations for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until
one year after the date on which it is registered with the Secretariat.
ARTICLE 8
At least once in ten years, the Governing Body of the International Labour
Office shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of
this Convention and shall consider the desirability of placing on the agenda
of the Conference the question of its revision or modification.
ARTICLE 9
The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
Recommendation [No. 17] concerning social insurance
in agriculture
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Third Session on
25 October 1921, and
— 125 —
Having decided upon the adoption of a proposal with regard to the
protection of agricultural workers against sickness, invalidity and old
age, which is included in the fourth item of the agenda of the Session,
and
Having decided that this proposal shall take the form of a recommendation,
adopts the following Recommendation, 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 Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding
Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation recommends:
That each Member of the International Labour Organisation extend its
laws and regulations establishing systems of insurance against sickness,
invalidity, old age and other similar social risks to agricultural wage earners
on conditions equivalent to those prevailing in the case of workers in industrial
and commercial occupations.
Draft Convention [No. 17] concerning l workmen's compensation
for accidents
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
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 workmen's compensation for accidents, which is included in the first
item of the agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a draft
international convention,
adopts, this tenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and
twenty-five, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the Members
of the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with the provisions
of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding Parts of
the other Treaties of Peace:
ARTICLE 1
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention undertakes to ensure that workmen who suffer personal injury
due to an industrial accident, or their dependants, shall be compensated on
terms at least equal to those provided by this Convention.
ARTICLE 2
The laws and regulations as to workmen's compensation shall apply to
workmen, employees and apprentices employed by any enterprise, undertaking
or establishment of whatsoever nature, whether public or private.
It shall nevertheless be open to any Member to make such exceptions in
its national legislation as it deems necessary in respect of:
i This Convention came into force on 1 April 1927. It had been ratified on 1 November
1935 by Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Hungary, Latvia, Luxemburg, Mexico,
Netherlands, Nicaragua, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Uruguay and Yugoslavia.
— 126 —
(a) Persons whose employment is of a casual nature and who are employed
otherwise than for the purpose of the employer's trade or business;
(b) Out-workers;
(c) Members of the employer's family who work exclusively on his behalf
and who live in his house;
(d) Non-manual workers whose remuneration exceeds a limit to be
determined by national laws or regulations.
ARTICLE 3
This Convention shall not apply to
(1) Seamen and fishermen for whom provision shall be made by a later
Convention ;
(2) Persons covered by some special scheme, the terms of which are not
less favourable than those of this Convention.
ARTICLE 4
This Convention shall not apply to agriculture, in respect of which the
Convention concerning workmen's compensation in agriculture adopted by
the International Labour Conference at its Third Session remains in force.
ARTICLE 5
The compensation payable to the injured workman, or his dependants,
where permanent incapacity or death results from the injury, shall be paid
in the form of periodical payments: provided that it may be wholly or partially
paid in a lump sum, if the competent authority is satisfied that it will be
properly utilised.
ARTICLE 6
In case of incapacity, compensation shall be paid not later than as from
the fifth day after the accident, whether it be payable by the employer, the
accident insurance institution, or the sickness insurance institution concerned.
ARTICLE 7
In cases where the injury results in incapacity of such a nature that the
injured workman must have the constant help of another person, additional
compensation shall be provided.
ARTICLE 8
The national laws or regulations shall prescribe such measures of supervision
and methods of review as are deemed necessary.
ARTICLE 9
Injured workmen shall be entitled to medical aid and to such surgical and
pharmaceutical aid as is recognised to be necessary in consequence of accidents.
The cost of such aid shall be defrayed either by the employer, by accident
insurance institutions, or by sickness or invalidity insurance institutions.
ARTICLE
10
Injured workmen shall be entitled to the supply and normal renewal, by
the employer or insurer, of such artificial limbs and surgical appliances as
are recognised to be necessary: provided that national laws or regulations
may allow in exceptional circumstances the supply and renewal of such
artificial limbs and appliances to be replaced by the award to the injured
workman of a sum representing the probable cost of the supply and renewal
of such appliances, this sum to be decided at the time when the amount of
compensation is settled or revised.
— 127 —
National laws or regulations shall provide for such supervisory measures
as are necessary, either to prevent abuses in connection with the renewal
of appliances, or to ensure that the additional compensation is utilised for
this purpose.
ARTICLE
11
The national laws or regulations shall make such provision as, having
regard to national circumstances, is deemed most suitable for ensuring in all
circumstances, in the event of the insolvency of the employer or insurer, the
payment of compensation to workmen who suffer personal injury due to
industrial accidents, or in case of death, to their dependants.
ARTICLE
12
The formal ratification of this Convention under the conditions set forth
in Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and in the corresponding Parts of
the other Treaties of Peace shall be communicated to the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations for registration.
ARTICLE
13
This Convention shall come into force at the date on which the ratifications
of two Members of the International Labour Organisation have been registered
by the Secretary-General.
It shall be binding only upon those Members whose ratifications have been
registered with the Secretariat.
Thereafter, the Convention shall come into force for any Member at the
date on which its ratification has been registered with the Secretariat.
ARTICLE
14
As soon as the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour
Organisation have been registered with the Secretariat, the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations shall so notify all the Members of the International
Labour Organisation. He shall likewise notify them of the registration of
ratifications which may be communicated subsequently by other Members
of the Organisation.
ARTICLE
15
^Subject to the provisions of Article 13, each Member which ratifies this
Convention agrees to bring the provisions of Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,
10 and 11 into operation not later than 1 January 1927 and to take such
action as may be necessary to make these provisions effective.
ARTICLE
16
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention engages to apply it to its colonies, possessions and protectorates,
in accordance with the provisions of Article 421 of the Treaty of Versailles
and of the corresponding Articles of the other Treaties of Peace.
ARTICLE
17
A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after theexpiration of five years from the date on which the Convention first comes
into force, by an act communicated to the Secretary-General of the League
of Nations for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until
one year after the date on which it is registered with the Secretariat.
ARTICLE
18
At least once in ten years, the Governing Body of the International LabourOffice shall present to the General Conference a report on the working
— 128 —
this Convention and shall consider the desirability of placing on the agenda
of the Conference the question of its revision or modification.
ARTICLE
19
The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
Recommendation [No. 22] concerning the minimum scale
of workmen's compensation
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
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 the minimum scale of 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,
ado_pts, this tenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and
twe^r^-ftve, the following Recommendation, to be submitted to the Members
of the intcajiational Labour Organisation for consideration with a view to
effect being given to it by national legislation or otherwise, in accordance
with the provisions of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the
corresponding Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
The General Conference recommends that each Member of the International
Labour Organisation should take the following principles and rules into
consideration :
I
Where incapacity for work results from the injury, the national laws or
regulations should provide for the payment of compensation at rates not
lower than those hereinafter indicated:
(1) In the case of permanent total incapacity, a periodical payment
equivalent to two-thirds of the workman's annual earnings;
(2) In case of permanent partial incapacity, a proportion of the periodical
payment due in the event of permanent total incapacity calculated in reference
to the reduction of earning power caused by the injury;
(3) In case of temporary total incapacity, a daily or weekly payment
equivalent to two-thirds of the workman's basic earnings as calculated for
purposes of compensation ;
(4) In case of temporary partial incapacity, a proportion of the daily or
weekly payment payable in the case of temporary total incapacity calculated
in reference to the reduction of earning power caused by the injury.
Where compensation is paid in a lump sum, the sum should not be less
than the capitalised value of the periodical payment which would be payable
under the foregoing paragraphs.
II
Where the injury is such that the workman requires the constant help of
another person, additional compensation should be paid to the workman,
which should not be less than half the amount payable in the case of permanent
total incapacity.
— 129 —
HI
Where death results from the injury, those entitled to be regarded as
•dependants for purposes of compensation should include at least the following:
(1) Deceased's husband or wife;
(2) Deceased's children under eighteen years of age, or above that age if,
by reason of physical or mental infirmity, they are incapable of earning;
(3) Deceased's ascendants (parents or grandparents), provided that they
are without means of subsistence and were dependent on the deceased, or
the deceased was under an obligation to contribute towards their maintenance;
(4) Deceased's grandchildren and brothers and sisters, if below eighteen
years of age, or above that age if, by reason of physical or mental infirmity,
they are incapable of earning, and if they are orphans, or if their parents,
though still living, are incapable of providing for them.
Where compensation is paid by means of periodical payments, the maximum
total of the yearly sum payable to all the dependants should not be less than
two-thirds of the deceased's annual earnings.
Where compensation is paid in a lump sum, the maximum sum payable
to all the dependants should not be less than the capitalised value of periodical
payments equivalent to two-thirds of the deceased's annual earnings.
IV
The vocational re-education of injured workmen should be provided by
such means as the national laws or regulations deem most suitable.
Governments should encourage institutions which undertake such reeducation.
Recommendation [No. 23] concerning jurisdiction in disputes
on workmen's compensation
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
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 and
twenty-five, the following Recommendation, 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 Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding
Parts of the other Treaties of Peace :
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,
9
— 130 —
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.
Draft Convention [No. 19] concerning equality of treatment for national1 and
foreign workers as regards workmen's compensation for accidents
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
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 the equality of treatment for national and foreign workers as regards
workmen's compensation for accidents, the second item in the agenda of
the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a draft
international convention,
adopts, this fifth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and
twenty-five, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the Members
of the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with the provisions
of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding Parts of the
other Treaties of Peace:
ARTICLE 1
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention undertakes to grant to the nationals of any other Member which
i This Convention came into force on 8 September 1926. It had been ratified on
1 November 1935 by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India,
Irish Free State, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Mexico, Netherlands,
Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uruguay
and Yugoslavia.
— 131 —
shall have ratified the Convention, who suffer personal injury due to industrial
accidents happening in its territory, or to their dependants, the same treatment
in respect of workmen's compensation as it grants to its own nationals.
This equality of treatment shall be guaranteed to foreign workers and their
dependants without any condition as to residence. With regard to the payments
which a Member or its nationals would have to make outside that Member's
territory in the application of this principle, the measures to be adopted shall
be regulated, if necessary, by special arrangements between the Members
concerned.
ARTICLE 2
Special agreements may be made between the Members concerned to provide
that compensation for industrial accidents happening to workers whilst
temporarily or intermittently employed in the territory of one Member on
behalf of an undertaking situated in the territory of another Member shall be
governed by the laws and regulations of the latter Member.
ARTICLE 3
The Members which ratify this Convention and which do not already possess
a system, whether by insurance or otherwise, of workmen's compensation for
industrial accidents agree to institute such a system within a period of three
years from the date of their ratification.
ARTICLE 4
The Members which ratify this Convention further undertake to afford
each other mutual assistance with a view to facilitating the application of the
Convention and the execution of their respective laws and regulations on
workmen's compensation and to inform the International Labour Office,
which shall inform the other Members concerned, of any modifications in
the laws and regulations in force on workmen's compensation.
ARTICLE 5
The formal ratifications of this Convention under the conditions set forth
in Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and in the corresponding Parts of the
other Treaties of Peace shall be communicated to the Secretary-General of
the League of Nations for registration.
ARTICLE 6
This Convention shall come into force at the date on which the ratifications
of two Members of the International Labour Organisation have been registered
by the Secretary-General.
It shall be binding only upon those Members whose ratifications have been
registered with the Secretariat.
Thereafter, the Convention shall come into force for any Member at the date
on which its ratification has been registered with the Secretariat.
ARTICLE 7
As soon as the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour
Organisation have been registered with the Secretariat, the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations shall so notify all the Members of the International
Labour Organisation. He shall likewise notify them of the registration of
ratifications which may be communicated subsequently by other Members
of the Organisation.
ARTICLE 8
Subject to the provisions of Article 6, each Member which ratified this
Convention agrees to bring the provisions of Articles 1, 2, 3 and 4 into operation
not later than 1 January 1927, and to take such action as may be necessary
to make these provisions effective.
— 132 —
ARTICLE
9
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies
this Convention engages to apply it to its colonies, possessions and protectorates,
in accordance with the provisions of Article 421 of the Treaty of Versailles
and of the corresponding Articles of the other Treaties of Peace.
ARTICLE
10
A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the
expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes into
force, by an act communicated to the Secretary-General of the League of
Nations for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until one
year after the date on which it is registered with the Secretariat.
ARTICLE
11
At least once in ten years, the Governing Body of the International Labour
Office shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this
Convention and shall consider the desirability of placing on the agenda of the
Conference the question of its revision or modification.
ARTICLE
12
The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
Recommendation [No. 25] concerning equality of treatment for national and
foreign workers as regards workmen's compensation for accidents
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
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 the equality of treatment for national and foreign workers as regards
workmen's compensation for accidents, the second item in the agenda
of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a
recommendation,
adopts, this fifth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and
twenty-five, the following Recommendation, 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 Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the
corresponding Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
I
¡P In order to facilitate the application of the Convention concerning equality
of treatment for national and foreign workers as regards workmen's compensation for accidents the Conference recommends that:
(a) When a person to whom compensation is due under the laws and
regulations of one Member resides in the territory of another Member, the
necessary measures be taken to facilitate the payment of such compensation
and to ensure the observance of the conditions governing such payment laid
down by the said laws and regulations;
— 133 —
(b) In case of dispute concerning the non-payment, cessation of payment,
or reduction of the compensation due to a person residing elsewhere than
in the territory of the Member where his claim to compensation originated,
facilities be afforded for taking proceedings in the competent courts of law
in such territory without requiring the attendance of the person concerned;
(c) Any advantage in respect of exemption from duties and taxes, free
issue of official documents or other privileges granted by the law of any
Member for purposes connected with workmen's compensation, be extended
under the same conditions to the nationals of the other Members which shall
have ratified the afore-mentioned Convention.
II
The Conference recommends that, where in any country there exists no
system, whether by insurance or otherwise, of workmen's compensation for
industrial accidents, the Government shall, pending the institution of such
a system, afford facilities to alien workers enabling them to benefit by the
laws and regulations on workmen's compensation in their own countries.
C. — SICKNESS INSURANCE
Draft Convention [No. 24] concerning sickness insurance for
workers in industry
and commerce and domestic servants1
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Tenth Session on
25 May 1927, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard
to sickness insurance for workers in industry and commerce and domestic
servants, which is included in the first item of the Agenda of the Session,
and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a draft
international convention,
adopts, this fifteenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and twenty-seven, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the
Members of the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with the
provisions of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding
Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
ARTICLE 1
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention undertakes to set up a system of compulsory sickness insurance
which shall be based on provisions at least equivalent to those contained in
this Convention.
ARTICLE 2
The compulsory sickness insurance system shall apply to manual and nonmanual workers, including apprentices, employed by industrial undertakings
and commercial undertakings, out-workers and domestic servants.
i This Convention came into force on 15 July 1928 It had been ratified on 1 November
1935 by Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Great Britain,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Nicaragua, Rumania, Spain, Uruguay and
Yugoslavia.
— 134 —
It shall, nevertheless, be open to any Member to make such exceptions in
its national laws or regulations as it deems necessary in respect of :
(a) Temporary employment which lasts for less than a period to be
determined by national laws or regulations, casual employment not for the
purpose of the employer's trade or business, occasional employment and
subsidiary employment;
(b) Workers whose wages or income exceed an amount to be determined
by national laws or regulations;
(c) Workers who are not paid a money wage;
(d) Out-workers whose conditions of work are not of a like nature to those
of ordinary wage-earners;
(e) Workers below or above age-limits to be determined by national laws
or regulations ;
(/) Members of the employer's family.
It shall further be open to exempt from the compulsory sickness insurance
system persons who in case of sickness are entitled by virtue of any laws or
regulations, or of a special scheme, to advantages at least equivalent on the
whole to those provided for in this Convention.
This Convention shall not apply to seamen and sea fishermen for whose
insurance against sickness provision may be made by a decision of a later
Session of the Conference.
ARTICLE 3
An insured person who is rendered incapable of work by reason of the
abnormal state of his bodily or mental health shall be entitled to a cash benefit
for at least the first twenty-six weeks of incapacity from and including the
first day for which benefit is payable.
The payment of this benefit may be made conditional on the insured person
having first complied with a qualifying period and, on the expiry of the same,
with a waiting period of not more than three days.
Cash benefit may be withheld in the following cases:
(a) Where in respect of the same illness the insured person receives
compensation from another source to which he is entitled by law; benefit
shall only be wholly or partially withheld in so far as such compensation is
equal to or less than the amount of the benefit provided by the present Article;
(6) As long as the insured person does not by the fact of his incapacity
suffer any loss of the normal product of his labour, or is maintained at the
expense of the insurance funds or from public funds; nevertheless, cash benefits
shall only partially be withheld when the insured person, although thus
personally maintained, has family responsibilities;
(c) As long as the insured person while ill refuses, without valid reason, to
comply with the doctor's orders, or the instructions relating to the conduct
of insured persons while ill, or voluntarily and without authorisation removes
himself from the supervision of the insurance institutions.
Cash benefit may be reduced or refused in the case of sickness caused by the
insured person's wilful misconduct.
ARTICLE 4
The insured person shall be entitled free of charge, as from the commencement of his illness and at least until the period prescribed for the grant of
sickness benefit expires, to medical treatment by a fully qualified medical
man and to the supply of proper and sufficient medicines and appliances.
Nevertheless, the insured person may be required to pay such part of the
cost of medical benefit as may be prescribed by national laws or regulations.
Medical benefit may be withheld as long as the insured person refuses,
without valid reason, to comply with the doctor's orders or the instructions
relating to the conduct of insured persons while ill, or neglects to make use
of the facilities placed at his disposal by the insurance institution.
— 135 —
ARTICLE 5
National laws or regulations may authorise or prescribe the grant of medical
benefit to members of an insured person's family living in his household
and dependent upon him, and shall determine the conditions under which
such benefit shall be administered.
ARTICLE 6
Sickness insurance shall be administered by self-governing institutions
which shall be under the administrative and financial supervision of t h e
competent public authority and shall not be carried on with a view of profit.
Institutions founded by private initiative must be specially approved by the
competent public authority.
The insured persons shall participate in the management of the selfgoverning insurance institutions on such conditions as may be prescribed by
national laws or regulations.
The administration of sickness insurance may, nevertheless, be undertaken
directly by the State where and as long as its administration is rendered difficult
or impossible or inappropriate by reason of national conditions, and particularly by the insufficient development of the employers' and workers' organisations.
ARTICLE 7
The insured persons and their employers shall share in providing the
financial resources of the sickness insurance system.
It is open to national laws or regulations to decide as to a financial contribution by the competent public authority.
ARTICLE 8
This Convention does not in any respect affect the obligations arising out
of the Convention concerning the employment of women before and after
childbirth, adopted by the International Labour Conference at its First
Session.
ARTICLE 9
A right of appeal shall be granted to the insured person in case of dispute
concerning his right to benefit.
ARTICLE
10
It shall be open to States which comprise large and very thinly populated
areas not to apply the Convention in districts where, by reason of the small
density and wide dispersion of the population and the inadequacy of the
means of communication, the organisation of sickness insurance, in accordance
with this Convention, is impossible.
The States which intend to avail themselves of the exception provided by
this Article shall give notice of their intention when communicating their
formal ratification to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations. They
shall inform the International Labour Office as to what districts they apply
the exception and indicate their reasons therefor.
In Europe it shall be open only to Finland to avail itself of the exception
contained in this Article.
ARTICLE
11
The formal ratifications of this Convention under the conditions set forth
in Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and in the corresponding Parts of
the other Treaties of Peace shall be communicated to the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations for registration.
ARTICLE
12
This Convention shall come into force ninety days after the date on which
the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour Organisation
have been registered by the Secretary-General.
— 136 —
I t shall be binding only upon those Members whose ratifications havebeen registered with the Secretariat.
Thereafter, the Convention shall come into force for any Member ninety
days after the date on which its ratification has been registered with the
Secretariat.
ARTICLE 13
As soon as the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour
Organisation have been registered with the Secretariat, the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations shall so notify all the Members of the International
Labour Organisation. He shall likewise notify them of the registration of
ratifications which may be communicated subsequently by other Members
of the Organisation.
ARTICLE 14
Subject to the provisions of Article 12,
Convention agrees to bring the provisions
9 and 10 into operation not later than 1
action as may be necessary to make these
each Member which ratifies this
of Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,
January 1929, and to take such
provisions effective.
ARTICLE 15
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention engages to apply it to its colonies, possessions and protectorates,
in accordance with the provisions of Article 421 of the Treaty of Versailles
and of the corresponding Articles of the other Treaties of Peace.
ARTICLE 16
A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the
expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes
into force, by an act communicated to the Secretary-General of the League
of Nations for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until
one year after the date on which it is registered with the Secretariat.
ARTICLE 17
At least once in ten years, the Governing Body of the International Labour
Office shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of
this Convention and shall consider the desirability of placing on the Agenda
of the Conference the question of its revision or modification.
ARTICLE 18
The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
Draft Convention [No. 25] concerning sickness insurance
for agricultural workers1
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met in its Tenth Session on 25 May 1927
and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard
to sickness insurance for agricultural workers, which is included in the
first item of the Agenda of the Session, and
i This Convention came into force on 13 July 1928. It had been ratified on 1 November
1935 by Austria, Bulgaria. Chile, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Great Britain,
Luxemburg, Nicaragua, Spain and Uruguay.
— 137 —
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a draft
international convention,
adopts, this fifteenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and twenty-seven, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the
Members of the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with the
provisions of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding
Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
ARTICLE 1
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratines
this Convention undertakes to set up a system of compulsory sickness insurance
for agricultural workers, which shall be based on provisions at least equivalent
to those contained in this Convention.
ARTICLE 2
The compulsory sickness insurance system shall apply to manual and
non-manual workers, including apprentices, employed by agricultural undertakings.
It shall, nevertheless, be open to any Member to make such exceptions in
its national laws or regulations as it deems necessary in respect of:
(a) Temporary employment which lasts for less than a period to be
determined by national laws or regulations, casual employment not for the
purpose of the employer's trade or business, occasional employment and
subsidiary employment;
(b) Workers whose wages or income exceed an amount to be determined
by national laws or regulations ;
(e) Workers who are not paid a money wage;
(d) Out-workers whose conditions of work are not of a like nature to
those of ordinary wage earners;
(e) Workers below or above age-limits to be determined by national laws
or regulations;
(/) Members of the employer's family.
It shall further be open to exempt from the compulsory sickness insurance
system persons who in case of sickness are entitled by virtue of any laws or
regulations, or of a special scheme, to advantages at least equivalent on the
whole to those provided for in this Convention.
ARTICLE 3
An insured person who is rendered incapable of work by reason of the
abnormal state of his bodily or mental health shall be entitled to a cash
benefit for at least the first twenty-six weeks of incapacity from and including
the first day for which benefit is payable.
The payment of this benefit may be made conditional on the insured person
having first complied with a qualifying period and, on the expiry of the same,
with a waiting period of not more than three days.
Cash benefit may be withheld in the following cases:
(a) Where in respect of the same illness the insured person receives
compensation from another source' to which he is entitled by law; benefit
shall only be wholly or partially withheld in so far as such compensation is
equal to or less than the amount of the benefit provided by the present Article;
(b) As long as the insured person does not by the fact of his incapacity
suffer any loss of the normal product of his labour, or is maintained at the
expense of the insurance funds or from public funds; nevertheless, cash
benefit shall only partially be withheld when the insured person, although
thus personally maintained, has family responsibilities.
— 138 —
(c) As long as the insured person while ill refuses, without valid reason,
to comply with the doctor's orders, or the instructions relating to the conduct
of insured persons while ill, or voluntarily and without authorisation removes
himself from the supervision of the insurance institutions.
Cash benefit may be reduced or refused in the case of sickness caused by
the insured person's wilful misconduct.
ARTICLE 4
The insured person shall be entitled free of charge, as from the commencement of his illness and at least until the period prescribed for the grant of
sickness benefit expires, to medical treatment by a fully qualified medical
man and to the supply of proper and sufficient medicines and appliances.
Nevertheless, the insured person may be required to pay such part of the
cost of medical benefit as may be prescribed by national laws or regulations.
Medical benefit may be withheld as long as the insured person refuses,
without valid reason, to comply with the doctor's orders or the instructions
relating to the conduct of insured persons while ill, or neglects to make use
of the facilities placed at his disposal by the insurance institution.
ARTICLE 5
National laws or regulations may authorise or prescribe the grant of medical
benefit to members of an insured person's family living in his household and
dependent upon him, and shall determine the conditions under which such
benefit shall be administered.
ARTICLE 6
Sickness insurance shall be administered by self-governing institutions,
which shall be under the administrative and financial supervision of the
competent public authority and shall not be carried on with a view of profit.
Institutions founded by private initiative must be specially approved by the
competent public authority.
The insured persons shall participate in the management of the selfgoverning insurance institutions on such conditions as may be prescribed by
national laws or regulations.
The administration of sickness insurance may, nevertheless, be undertaken
directly by the State where and as long as its administration is rendered
difficult or impossible or inappropriate by reason of national conditions, and
particularly by the insufficient development of the employers' and workers
organisations.
ARTICLE 7
The insured persons and their employers shall share in providing the
financial resources of the sickness insurance system.
It is open to national laws or regulations to decide as to a financial contribution by the competent public authority.
ARTICLE 8
A right of appeal shall be granted to the insured person in case of dispute
concerning his right to benefit.
ARTICLE 9
It shall be open to States which comprise large and very thinly populated
areas not to apply the Convention in districts where, by reason of the small
density and wide dispersion of the population and the inadequacy of the
means of communication, the organisation of sickness insurance, in accordance
with this Convention, is impossible.
The States which intend to avail themselves of the exception provided by
this Article shall give notice of their intention when communicating their
formal ratification to the Secretary-General of the League of Nations. They
— 139 —
shall inform the International Labour Office as to what districts they apply
the exception and indicate their reasons therefor.
In Europe it shall be open only to Finland to avail itself of the exception
contained in this Article.
ARTICLE
10
The formal ratifications of this Convention under the conditions set forth
in Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and in the corresponding Parts of
the other Treaties of Peace shall be communicated to the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations for registration.
ARTICLE
11
This Convention shall come into force ninety days after the date on which
the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour Organisation
have been registered by the Secretary-General.
It shall be binding only upon those Members whose ratifications have
been registered with the Secretariat.
Thereafter, the Convention shall come into force for any Member ninety
days after the date on which its ratification has been registered with the
Secretariat.
ARTICLE
12
As soon as the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour
Organisation have been registered with the Secretariat, the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations shall so notify all the Members of the International
Labour Organisation. He shall likewise notify them of the registration of
ratifications which may be communicated subsequently by other Members
of the Organisation.
ARTICLE
13
Subject to the provisions of Article 11, each Member which ratifies this
Convention agrees to bring the provisions of Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9
into operation not later than 1 January 1929, and to take such action as may
'be necessary to make these provisions effective.
ARTICLE
14
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies
this Convention engages to apply it to its colonies, possessions and protectorates
in accordance with the provisions of Article 421 of the Treaty of Versailles
and of the corresponding Articles of the other Treaties of Peace.
ARTICLE
15
A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the
expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes into
force, by an act communicated to the Secretary-General of the League of
Nations for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until one
year after the date on which it is registered with the Secretariat.
ARTICLE
16
At least once in ten years, the Governing Body of the International Labour
Office shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this
Convention and shall consider the desirability of placing on the Agenda of
the Conference the question of its revision or modification.
ARTICLE
17
The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
— 140 —
Recommendations [No. 29] concerning the general principles
of sickness insurance
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of theLeague of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Tenth Session on
25 May 1927, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to
the principles of sickness insurance, the first item on the Agenda of the
Session, and
Having determined that these proposals should take the form of a
recommendation,
adopts, this fifteenth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and twenty-seven, the following Recommendation, 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 Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of-the
corresponding Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
Whereas the maintenance of à healthy and vigorous labour supply is of
capital importance not only for the workers themselves, but also for
communities which desire to develop their productive capacity; and
Whereas this development is only attainable by constantly and systematically applying provident measures to obviate or make good any loss of
the workers' productive efficiency; and
Whereas the best provident measure for these purposes is to establish a
system of social insurance which confers clearly defined rights on the persons
to whom it applies;
Therefore the General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,.
Having adopted Draft Conventions concerning, of the one part, sickness'
insurance for workers in industry and commerce and domestic servants, and,
of the other part, sickness insurance for agricultural workers, drafts which
lay down minimum conditions which must be complied with from the beginning
by every system of sickness insurance, and
Considering that, in order to put the experience already gained at the disposal
of the Members with a view to assisting them in the institution or completion
of their sickness insurance services, it is desirable to indicate a number of
the general principles which practice shows to be the best calculated to promote
a just, effective and appropriate organisation of sickness insurance,
Recommends that each Member should take the following principles and
rules into consideration:
I.
S C O P E OF A P P L I C A T I O N
1. Sickness insurance should include within its scope, without discrimination as to age or sex, every person who performs work by way of his occupation
and under a contract of service or apprenticeship.
2. If, however, it is considered desirable to fix age-limits by reason of
the fact that workers above or below such limits are already protected by
law or otherwise, such limits should not apply to young persons who cannot
normally be considered as dependent upon their family or to workers who
have not reached the old-age pension age; and
if exceptions are made in respect of workers whose earnings or income
exceed a specified amount, such exceptions should only apply to workers
whose earnings or income are such that they may reasonably be expected
to make their own provision for sickness.
— 141 —
II.
BENEFITS
A. — Cash Benefits
3. In order to secure that an insured person who is rendered incapable
of work by sickness may recover his health as early as possible, the cash
benefit representing compensation for lost wages should be adequate.
For this purpose the statutory scale of benefit should ordinarily be fixed
in relation to the normal wage which is taken into account for the purposes
of compulsory insurance, and should be a substantial proportion of such
wage, regard being had to family responsibilities; but in countries where the
workers have adequate facilities, of which they are accustomed to take
advantage to procure for themselves additional benefit by other means, a
uniform scale of benefit may be appropriate.
4. The statutory benefit should be paid for at least the first twenty-six
weeks of incapacity as from and including the first day for which benefit
is payable; nevertheless, the period for which benefit is payable should be
increased to one year in cases of serious and chronic illness and for insured
persons who will not receive any invalidity benefit on the expiry of their
right to sickness benefit.
5. An insurance institution which can show that it is in a sound financial
position should be authorised:
(a) To increase the statutory scale of benefit up to specified amounts
either for all insured persons or for certain groups of the same, in particular
insured persons with family responsibilities;
(b) To prolong the statutory period during which benefit is payable.
6. In countries where burial expenses are not, customarily or by law,
covered by some other insurance, sickness insurance institutions should, on
the death of an insured person, pay a benefit in respect of the cost of decent
burial; they should also be empowered to pay such a benefit in respect of
the burial expenses of the insured person's dependants.
B. — Benefits in Kind
7. Treatment by a fully qualified doctor and the supply of proper and
sufficient medicines and appliances should be granted to an insured person
from the beginning of his illness and for so long as the state of his health
requires it; the insured person should be entitled to these benefits free of
charge from the beginning of his illness and at least until the expiry of the
period prescribed for the grant of sickness benefit.
8. In addition to treatment by a fully qualified doctor and the supply
of proper and sufficient medicines and appliances, there should be available
for the insured person, as and when local and financial conditions admit,
facilities for specialist services, as well as dental treatment, and for treatment
in hospital, where his family circumstances necessitate it or his illness requires
a mode of treatment which can only be given in hospital.
9. While an insured person is maintained in hospital, the insurance
institution should pay to his dependants the whole or a part of the sickness
benefit which would have been payable to him had he not been so maintained.
10. With a view to ensuring good conditions for the maintenance in
health of the insured person and his family, members of the insured person's
family living in his home and dependent upon him should be furnished with
medical benefit, as and when it may be possible and practicable to do so.
11. Insurance institutions should be empowered to avail themselves, on
equitable conditions, of the services of such doctors as they need.
In urban centres, and within specified geographical limits, an insured person
should be entitled to choose a doctor from among those at the disposal of
the insurance institution, unless this would involve considerable extra expense
to the institution.
C.
Sickness Prevention
12. As most diseases can be prevented, an alert policy of prevention is
calculated to avert loss of productive efficiency, to render available for other
— 142 —
purposes the financial resources which are absorbed by avoidable illness,
and to promote the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the
community.
Sickness insurance should assist in inculcating the practice of the rules of
hygiene among the workers. It should give preventive treatment and grant
the same to as large a number of individuals as possible as soon as the premonitory symptoms of disease appear. It should be capable of contributing
towards the prevention of the spread of disease and the improvement of the
national health, in pursuance of a general policy co-ordinating all the various
activities towards these ends.
III.
ORGANISATION OF INSURANCE
13. Insurance institutions should be administered, under the supervision
of the competent public authority in accordance with the principles of selfgovernment, and shall not be carried on for profit. The insured persons being
those who are the most directly interested in the working of the insurance
scheme should, through elected representatives, have an important part in
the management of the insurance system.
14. A good organisation of medical benefit and, in particular, the efficient
provision and utilisation of medical equipment embodying the results of
scientific progress can be most easily secured—except in certain special
circumstances—by concentrating action on a territorial basis.
IV.
FINANCIAL RESOURCES
15. The financial resources for the insurance scheme should be provided
by contributions from the insured persons and contributions from employers.
The provision thus jointly made can be supplemented to advantage by contributions from public funds, especially for the purpose of improving the health
of the people.
With a view to securing the stability of the insurance system, reserve funds,
appropriate to the peculiar circumstances of the system, should be constituted.
V.
S E T T L E M E N T OF D I S P U T E S
16. With a view to their being settled rapidly and inexpensively, disputes
as to benefits between insured persons and insurance institutions should be
referred to special tribunals the members of which include judges or assessors
who are specially cognisant of the purposes of insurance and the needs of
insured persons.
VI.
EXCEPTION FOR SPARSELY POPULATED TERRITORIES
17. States which, by reason of the small density of their population or
of the inadequacy of the means of communication, cannot organise sickness
insurance in certain parts of their territory should:
(a) Establish in such parts of their territory a sanitary service adequate
to the local conditions;
(b) Examine periodically whether the conditions required for the introduction of compulsory sickness insurance in the parts of their territory previously excepted from the compulsory scheme are fulfilled.
VII.
18.
SEAMEN AND SEA FISHERMEN
This Recommendation shall not apply to seamen and sea fishermen.
— 143 —
D. — INVALIDITY, OLD-AGE, AND SURVIVORS' INSURANCE
Draft Convention [No. 35] concerning compulsory old-age insurance for
persons employed in industrial or commercial undertakings, in the liberal
professions, and for outworkers and domestic servants 1
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Seventeenth Session
on 8 June 1933, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard
to compulsory old-age insurance, which is included in the second item
on the Agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a draft
international convention,
adopts, this twenty-ninth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and thirty-three, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the
Members of the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with the
provisions of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding
Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
ARTICLE
1
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies
this Convention undertakes to set up or maintain a scheme of compulsory
old-age insurance which shall be based on provisions at least equivalent to
those contained in this Convention.
ARTICLE
2
1. The compulsory old-age insurance scheme shall apply to manual and
non-manual workers, including apprentices, employed in industrial or
commercial undertakings or in the liberal professions, and to outworkers and
domestic servants:
2. Provided that any Member may in its national laws or regulations make
such exceptions as it deems necessary in respect of
(a) Workers whose remuneration exceeds a prescribed amount and, where
national laws or regulations do not make this exception general in its
application, any non-manual workers engaged in occupations which
are ordinarily considered as liberal professions;
(b) Workers who are not paid a money wage;
(c) Young workers under a prescribed age and workers too old to become
insured when they first enter employment;
(d) Outworkers whose conditions of work are not of a like nature to those
of ordinary wage earners;
(e) Members of the employer's family;
(/) Workers whose employment is of such a nature that, its total duration
being necessarily short, they cannot qualify for benefit, and persons
engaged solely in occasional or subsidiary employment;
i This Draft Convention had heen ratiñed on 1 November 1935 by Chile.
— 144 —
(g) Invalid -workers and workers in receipt of an invalidity or old-age
pension;
(h) Retired public officials employed for remuneration and persons possessing a private income, where the retirement pension or private income
is at least equal to the old-age pension provided by national laws or
regulations;
(¿) Workers who, during their studies, give lessons or work for remuneration in preparation for an occupation corresponding to such studies;
(;') Domestic servants employed in the households of agricultural employers.
3. Provided also that there may be exempted from liability to insurance
persons who, by virtue of any law, regulations or special scheme, are or will
become entitled to old-age benefits at least equivalent on the whole to those
provided for in this Convention.
4. This Convention does not apply to seamen and sea fishermen.
ARTICLE 3
National laws or regulations shall, under conditions to be determined by
them, either entitle persons formerly compulsorily insured who have not
attained the pensionable age to continue their insurance voluntarily or entitle
such persons to maintain their rights by the periodical payment of a fee for
the purpose, unless the said rights are automatically maintained or, in the
case of married women, the husband, if not liable to compulsory insurance,
is permitted to insure voluntarily and thereby to qualify his wife for an
old-age or widow's pension.
ARTICLE 4
An insured person shall be entitled to an old-age pension at an age which
shall be determined by national laws or regulations but which, in the case
of insurance schemes for employed persons, shall not exceed sixty-five.
ARTICLE 5
The right to a pension may be made conditional upon the completion of
a qualifying period, which may involve the payment of a minimum number
of contributions since entry into insurance and during a prescribed period
immediately preceding the happening of the event insured against.
ARTICLE 6
1. An insured person who ceases to be liable to insurance without being
entitled to a benefit representing a return for the contributions credited to
his account shall retain his rights in respect of these contributions:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may terminate rights in
respect of contributions on the expiry of a term which shall be reckoned
from the date when the insured person so ceased to be liable to insurance
and which shall be either variable or fixed:
(a) Where the term is variable, it shall not be less than one-third (less
the periods for which contributions have not been credited) of the
total of the periods for which contributions have been credited since
entry into insurance.
(b) Where the term is fixed, it shall in no case be less than eighteen months
and rights in respect of contributions may be terminated on the
expiry of the term unless, in the course thereof, a minimum number
of contributions prescribed by national laws or regulations has been
credited to the account of the insured person in virtue of either
compulsory or voluntarily continued insurance.
— 145 —
ARTICLE 7
1. The pension shall, whether or not dependent on the time spent in
insurance, be a fixed sum or a percentage of the remuneration taken into
account for insurance purposes or vary with the amount of the contributions
paid.
2. Where the pension varies with the time spent in insurance and its
award is made conditional upon the completion by the insured person of a
qualifying period, the pension shall, unless a minimum rate is guaranteed,
include a fixed sum or fixed portion not dependent on the time spent in
insurance; where the pension is awarded without any condition as to the
completion of a qualifying period, provision may be made for a guaranteed
minimum rate of pension.
3. Where contributions are graduated according to remuneration, the
remuneration taken into account for this purpose shall also be taken into
account for the purpose of computing the pension, whether or not the pension
varies with the time spent in insurance.
ARTICLE 8
1. The right to benefits may be forfeited or suspended in whole or in
part if the person concerned has acted fraudulently towards the insurance
institution.
2. The pension may be suspended in whole or in part while the person
concerned
(a) Is in employment involving compulsory insurance;
(b) Is entirely maintained at the public expense; or
(c) Is in receipt of another periodical cash benefit payable by virtue of
any law or regulations concerning compulsory social insurance, pensions
or workmen's compensation for accidents or occupational diseases.
ARTICLE 9
1. The insured persons and their employers shall contribute to the financial
resources of the insurance scheme.
2. National laws or regulations may exempt from liability to pay
contributions
(a) Apprentices and young workers under a prescribed age;
(6) Workers who are not paid a money wage or whose wages are very low.
3. Contrinutions from employers may be dispensed with under laws or
regulations concerning schemes of national insurance not restricted in scope
to employed persons.
4. The public authorities shall contribute to the financial resources or to
the benefits of insurance schemes covering employed persons in general or
manual workers.
5. National laws or regulations which, at the time of the adoption of this
Convention, do not require contributions from insured persons may continue
not to require such contributions.
ARTICLE
10
1. The insurance scheme shall be administered by institutions founded
by the public authorities and not conducted with a view to profit, or by
State insurance funds:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may also entrust its administration to institutions founded on the initiative of the parties concerned
or of their organisations and duly approved by the public authorities.
3. The funds of insurance institutions and State insurance funds shall be
administered separately from the public funds.
10
— 146 —
4. Representatives of the insured persons shall participate in the management of insurance institutions under conditions to be determined by national
laws or regulations, which may likewise decide as to the participation of
representatives of employers and of the public authorities.
5. Self-governing insurance institutions shall be under the administrative
and financial supervision of the public authorities.
.ARTICLE 11
1. The insured person or his legal representatives shall have a right of
appeal in any dispute concerning benefits.
2. Such disputes shall be referred to special tribunals which shall include
judges, whether professional or not, who are specially cognisant of the purposes
of insurance and the needs of insured persons or are assisted by assessors
chosen as representative of insured persons and employers respectively.
3. In any dispute concerning liability to insurance or the rate of
contribution, the employed person and, in the case of schemes providing for
an employer's contribution, his employer shall have a right of appeal.
ARTICLE
12
1. Foreign employed persons shall be liable to insurance and to the
payment of contributions under the same conditions as nationals.
2. Foreign insured persons and their dependants shall be entitled under the
same conditions as nationals to the benefits derived from the contributions
credited to their account.
3. Foreign insured persons and their dependants shall, if nationals of a
Member which is bound by this Convention and the laws or regulations of
which therefore provide for a State subsidy towards the financial resources or
benefits of the insurance scheme in conformity with Article 9, also be entitled
to any subsidy or supplement to or fraction of a pension which is payable out
of public funds :
4. Provided that national laws or regulations may restrict to nationals
the right to any subsidy or supplement to or fraction of a pension which is
payable out of public funds and granted solely to insured persons who have
exceeded a prescribed age at the date when the laws or regulations providing
for compulsory insurance come into force.
5. Any restrictions which may apply in the event of residence abroad shall
only apply to pensioners and their dependants who are nationals of any Member
bound by this Convention and reside in the territory of any Member bound
thereby to the extent to which they apply to nationals of the country in which
the pension has been acquired: Provided that any subsidy or supplement to or
fraction of a pension which is payable out of public funds may be withheld.
ARTICLE
13
1. The insurance of employed persons shall be governed by the law
applicable at their place of employment.
2. In the interest of continuity of insurance exceptions may be made to
this rule by agreement between the Members concerned.
ARTICLE
14
Any Member may prescribe special provisions for frontier workers whose
place of employment is in its territory and whose place of residence is abroad.
ARTICLE
15
In countries which, at the time when this Convention first comes into force,
have no laws or regulations providing for compulsory old-age insurance, an
existing non-contributory pension scheme which guarantees an individual right
— 147 —
to a pension under the conditions defined in Articles 16 to 22 hereinafter
shall be deemed to satisfy the requirements of this Convention.
ARTICLE
16
Pensions shall be awarded at an age which shall be determined by national
laws or regulations but which shall not exceed sixty-five.
ARTICLE
17
The right to a pension may be made conditional upon the claimant's having
been resident in the territory of the Member for a period immediately preceding
the making of the claim. This period shall be determined by national laws or
regulations but shall not exceed ten years.
ARTICLE
18
1. A claimant shall be entitled to a pension if the annual value of his
means does not exceed a limit which shall be fixed by national laws
or regulations with due regard to the minimum cost of living.
2. Means up to a level which shall be determined by national laws or
regulations shall be exempted for the purpose of the assessment of means.
ARTICLE
19
The rate of pension shall be an amount which, together with any means of the
claimant in excess of the means exempted, is at least sufficient to cover the
essential needs of the pensioner.
ARTICLE
20
1. A claimant shall have a right of appeal in any dispute concerning the
award of a pension or the rate thereof.
2. The appeal shall lie to an authority other than the authority which gave
the decision in the first instance.
ARTICLE
21
i. Foreigners who are nationals of a Member bound by this Convention
shall be entitled to pensions under the same conditions as nationals:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may make the award of a
pension to foreigners conditional upon their having been resident in the
territory of the Member for a period which shall not exceed by more than
five years the period of residence prescribed for nationals.
ARTICLE
22
1. The right to a pension may be forfeited or suspended in whole or in
part if the person concerned
(a) Has been sentenced to imprisonment for a criminal offence;
(b) Has obtained or attempted to obtain a pension by fraud; or
(c) Has persistently refused to earn his living by work compatible with
his strength and capacity.
2. The pension may be suspended in whole or in part while the person
concerned is entirely maintained at the public expense.
ARTICLE
23
Subject to the provisions of paragraph 5 of Article 12, this Convention
does not reîer to the maintenance of pension rights in the event of residence
abroad.
— 148 —
ARTICLE
24
The formal ratifications of this Convention under the conditions set forth
in Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and in the corresponding Parts of
the other Treaties of Peace shall be communicated to the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations for registration.
ARTICLE
25
This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members whose ratifications have been registered with the Secretariat.
It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour Organisation have been
registered with the Secretary-General.
Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member twelve
months after the date on which its ratification has been registered.
ARTICLE
26
As soon as the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour
Organisation have been registered with the Secretariat, the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations shall so notify all the Members of the International
Labour Organisation. He shall likewise notify them of the registration of
ratifications which may be communicated subsequently by other Members
of the Organisation.
ARTICLE
27
A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the
expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes
into force, by an act communicated to the Secretary-General of the League
of Nations for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until
one year after the date on which it is registered with the Secretariat.
Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does not,
within the year following the expiration of the period of ten years mentioned
in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for
in this Article, will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter,
may denounce this Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years
under the terms provided for in this Article.
ARTICLE
28
At the expiration of each period of ten years after the coming into force
of this Convention, the Governing Body of the International Labour Office
shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this
Convention and shall consider the desirability of placing on the Agenda of
the Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.
ARTICLE
29
Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention
in whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise provides,
(a) The ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention shall
ipso jure involve the. immediate denunciation of this Convention,
notwithstanding the provisions of Article 27 above, if and when the
new revising Convention shall have come into force;
(b) As from the date when the new revising Convention comes into force,
this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification by the Members.
This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual form and
content for those Members which have ratified it but have not ratified the
revising Convention.
ARTICLE
30
The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
— 149 —
Draft Convention [No. 36] concerning compulsory old-age insurance for
persons employed in agricultural undertakings *
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Seventeenth Session
on 8 June 1933, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to
compulsory old-age insurance, which is included in the second item on the
Agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Draft
International Convention,
adopts, this twenty-ninth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and thirty-three, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the
Members of the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with the
provisions of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding
Parts of the other Treaties of Peace :
ARTICLE 1
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies
this Convention undertakes to set up or maintain a scheme of compulsory
old-age insurance which shall be based on provisions at least equivalent to those
contained in this Convention.
ARTICLE 2
1. The compulsory old-age insurance scheme shall apply to manual and
non-manual workers, including apprentices, employed in agricultural undertakings, and to domestic servants employed in the households of agricultural
employers :
2. Provided that any Member may in its national laws or regulations make
such exceptions as it deems necessary in respect of
(a) Workers whose remuneration exceeds a prescribed amount and, where
national laws or regulations do not make this exception general in its
application, any non-manual workers engaged in occupations which are
ordinarily considered as liberal professions;
(b) Workers who are not paid a money wage;
(c) Young workers under a prescribed age and workers too old to become
insured when they first enter employment;
(d) Outworkers whose conditions of work are not of a like nature to those
of ordinary wage earners ;
(e) Members of the employers's family ;
(/) Workers whose employment is of such a nature that, its total duration
being necessarily short, they cannot qualify for benefit, and persons
engaged solely in occasional or subsidiary employment;
(g) Invalid workers and workers in receipt of an invalidity or old-age
pension ;
(h) Retired public officials employed for remuneration and persons
possessing a private income, where the retirement pension or private
income is at least equal to the old-age pension provided by national
laws or regulations;
i This Draft Convention had heen ratified, on 1 November 1935, by Chile.
— 150 —
(i)
Workers who; during their studies, give lessons or work for remuneration
in preparation for an occupation corresponding to such studies.
3. Provided also that there may be exempted from liability to insurance
persons who, by virtue of any law, regulations or special scheme, are or will
become entitled to old-age benefits at least equivalent on the whole to those
provided for in this Convention.
ARTICLES
3-8
[The text is the same as that of Articles 3-8 of Draft Convention No. 35;
cf. pp. 144-145.]
ARTICLE 9
1. The insured persons and their employers shall contribute to the financial
resources of the insurance scheme.
2. National laws or regulations may exempt from liability to pay
contributions
(a) Apprentices and young workers under a prescribed age ;
(b) Workers who are not paid a money wage or whose wages are very
low;
(c) Workers in the service of an employer who pays contributions assessed
on a basis which is not dependent on the number of workers employed.
3. Contributions from employers may be dispensed with under laws or
regulations concerning schemes of national insurance not restricted in scope
to employed persons.
4. The public authorities shall contribute to the financial resources or to the
benefits of insurance schemes covering employed persons in general or manual
workers.
5. National laws or regulations which, at the time of the adoption of this
Convention, do not require contributions from insured persons may continue
not to require such contributions.
ARTICLES
10-30
[The text is the same as that of Articles 10-30 of Draft Convention No. 35;
cf. pp. 145-148.]
Draft Convention [No. 37] concerning compulsory invalidity insurance for
persons employed in industrial or commercial undertakings, in the liberal
professions, and for outworkers and domestic servants1
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Seventeenth Session
on 8 June 1933, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to
compulsory invalidity insurance, which is included in the second item on
the Agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a Draft
International Convention,
This Draft Convention had been ratified, on 1 November 1935, by Chile
— 151 —
adopts, this twenty-ninth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and thirty-three, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the
Members of the Internationa] Labour Organisation, in accordance with the
provisions of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding
Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
ARTICLE 1
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention undertakes to set up or maintain a scheme of compulsory invalidity
insurance which shall be based on provisions at least equivalent to those
contained in this Convention.
ARTICLE 2
1. The compulsory invalidity insurance scheme shall apply to manual
and non-manual workers, including apprentices employed in industrial or
commercial undertakings or in the liberal professions, and to outworkers
and domestic servants:
2. Provided that any Member may in its national laws or regulations
make such exceptions as it deems necessary in respect of
{a) Workers whose remuneration exceeds a prescribed amount and, where
national laws or regulations do not make this exception general in its
application, any non-manual workers engaged in occupations which are
ordinarily considered as liberal professions;
(¿>) Workers who are not paid a money wage;
(c) Young workers under a prescribed age and workers too old to become
insured when they first enter employment ;
{d) Outworkers whose conditions of work are not of a like nature to those
of ordinary wage earners;
(e) Members of the employer's family;
(/) Workers whose employment is of such a nature that, its total duration
being necessarily short, they cannot qualify for benefit, and persons
engaged solely in occasional or subsidiary employment;
(g) Invalid workers and workers in receipt of an invalidity or old-age
pension ;
(h) Retired public officials employed for remuneration and persons possessing a private income, where the retirement pension or private income
is at least equal to the invalidity pension provided by national laws
or regulations;
(i) Workers who, during their studies, give lessons or work for remuneration in preparation for an occupation corresponding to such studies;
{/) Domestic servants employed in the households of agricultural employers.
3. Provided also that there may be exempted from liability to insurance
persons who, by virtue of any law, regulations or special scheme, are or will
become entitled to invalidity benefits at least equivalent on the whole to
those provided for in this Convention.
4. This Convention does not apply to seamen and sea fishermen.
ARTICLE 3
National laws or regulations shall, under conditions to be determined by
them, either entitle persons formerly compulsorily insured who are not in
receipt of a pension to continue their insurance voluntarily or entitle such
person to maintain their rights by the periodical payment of a fee for the
purpose, unless the said rights are automatically maintained or, in the case
of married women, the husband, if not liable to compulsory insurance, is
permitted to insure voluntarily and thereby to qualify his wife for an old-age
or widow's pension.
— 152 —
ARTICLE 4
1. An insured person who becomes generally incapacitated for work and
thereby unable to earn an appreciable remuneration shall be entitled to an
invalidity pension:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations which secure to insured
persons medical treatment and attendance throughout invalidity and, if
invalidity terminates in death, secure pensions at the full rate to widows
without any conditions as to age or invalidity and to orphans, may make
the award of an invalidity pension conditional upon the insured person's
being unable to perform remunerative work.
3. In the case of special schemes for non-manual workers, an insured
person who suffers from incapacity which renders him unable to earn an
appreciable remuneration in the occupation in which he was ordinarily engaged
or in a similar occupation shall be entitled to an invalidity pension.
ARTICLE 5
1. Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 6, the right to a pension
may be made conditional upon the completion of a qualifying period, which
may involve the payment of a minimum number of contributions since entry
into insurance and during a prescribed period immediately preceding the
happening of the event insured against.
2. The duration of the qualifying period shall not exceed 60 contribution
months, 250 contribution weeks or 1,500 contribution days.
3. Where the completion of the qualifying period involves the payment
of a prescribed number of contributions during a prescribed period immediately
preceding the happening of the event insured against, periods for which
benefit has been paid in respect of temporary incapacity for work or of
unemployment shall be reckoned as contribution periods to such extent and
under such conditions as may be determined by national laws or regulations.
ARTICLE
6
1. An insured person who ceases to be liable to insurance without being
entitled to a benefit representing a return for the contributions credited to
his account shall retain his rights in respect of these contributions:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may terminate rights in
respect of contributions on the expiry of a term which shall be reckoned
from the date when the insured person so ceased to be liable to insurance
and which shall be either variable or fixed:
{a) Where the term is variable, it shall not be less than one-third (less
the periods for which contributions have not been credited) of the
total of the periods for which contributions have been credited since
entry into insurance.
(¿>) Where the term is fixed, it shall in no case be less than eighteen months
and rights in respect of contributions may be terminated on the expiry
of the term unless, in the course thereof, a minimum number of
contributions prescribed by national laws or regulations has been
credited to the account of the insured person in virtue of either compulsory or voluntarily continued insurance.
ARTICLE 7
1. The pension shall, whether or not dependent on the time spent in
insurance, be a fixed sum or a percentage of the remuneration taken
into account for insurance purposes or vary with the amount of the
contributions paid.
2. Where the pension varies with the time spent in insurance and its
award is made conditional upon the completion by the insured person of a
— 153 —
qualifying period, the pension shall, unless a minimum rate is guaranteed,
include a fixed sum or fixed portion not dependent on the time spent
in insurance.
3. Where contributions are graduated according to remuneration, the
remuneration taken into account for this purpose shall also be taken into
account for the purpose of computing the pension, whether or not the pension
varies with the time spent in insurance.
ARTICLE 8
Insurance institutions shall be authorised, under conditions which shall be
determined by national laws or regulations, to grant benefits in kind for the
purpose of preventing, postponing, alleviating or curing invalidity to persons
who are in receipt of or may be entitled to claim a pension on the ground of
invalidity.
ARTICLE 9
1. The right to benefits may be forfeited or suspended in whole or in part
if the person concerned
(a) Has brought about his invalidity by a criminal offence or wilful
misconduct; or
(b) Has acted fraudulently towards the insurance institution.
2. The pension may be suspended in whole or in part while the person
concerned
(a) Is entirely maintained at the public expense or by a social insurance
institution ;
(b) Refuses without valid reason to comply with the doctor's orders or the
instructions relating to the conduct of invalids or voluntarily and
without authorisation removes himself from the supervision of the
insurance institution;
(c) Is in receipt of another periodical cash benefit payable by virtue of any
law or regulations concerning compulsory social insurance, pensions
or workmen's compensation for accidents or occupational diseases; or
(d) Is in employment involving compulsory insurance or, in the case of
special schemes for non-manual workers, is in receipt of remuneration
exceeding a prescribed rate.
ARTICLE
10
1. The insured persons and their employers shall contribute to the financial
resources of the insurance scheme.
2. National laws or regulations may exempt from liability to pay
contributions
(a) Apprentices and young workers under a prescribed age ;
(b) Workers who are not paid a money wage or whose wages are very low.
3. Contributions from employers may be dispensed with under laws or
regulations concerning schemes of national insurance not restricted in scope
to employed persons.
4. The public authorities shall contribute to the financial resources or to the
benefits of insurance schemes covering employed persons in general or manual
workers.
5. National laws or regulations which, at the time of the adoption of this
Convention, do not require contributions from insured persons may continue
not to require such contributions.
— 154 —
ARTICLE
11
1. The insurance scheme shall be administered by institutions founded by
the public authorities and not conducted with a view to profit or by State
insurance funds:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may also entrust its
administration to institutions founded on the initiative of the parties concerned
or of their organisations and duly approved by the public authorities.
3. The funds of insurance institutions and State insurance funds shall be
administered separately from the public funds:
4. Representatives of the insured persons shall participate in the
management of insurance institutions under conditions to be determined by
national laws or regulations, which may likewise decide as to the participation
of representatives of employers and of the public authorities.
5. Self-governing insurance institutions shall be under the administrative
and financial supervision of the public authorities.
ARTICLE
12
1. The insured person or his legal representatives shall have a right of
appeal in any dispute concerning benefits.
2. Such disputes shall be referred to special tribunals which shall include
judges, whether professional or not,.who are specially cognisant of the purposes of insurance and the needs of insured persons or are assisted by assessors
chosen as representative of insured persons and employers respectively.
3. In any dispute concerning liability to insurance or the rate of
contribution, the employed person and, in the case of schemes providing for an
employer's contribution, his employer shall have a right of appeal.
ARTICLE
13
1. Foreign employed persons shall be liable to insurance and to the payment
of contributions under the same conditions as nationals.
2. Foreign insured persons and their dependants shall be entitled under the
same conditions as nationals to the benefits derived from the contributions
credited to their account.
3. Foreign insured persons and their dependants shall, if nationals of a
Member which is bound by this Convention and the laws or regulations of which
therefore provide for a State subsidy towards the financial resources or benefits
of the insurance scheme in conformity with Article 10, also be entitled to any
subsidy or supplement to or fraction of a pension which is payable out of public
funds :
4. Provided that national laws or regulations may restrict to nationals
the right to any subsidy or supplement to or fraction of a pension which is
payable out of public funds and granted solely to insured persons who have
exceeded a prescribed age at the date when the laws or regulations providing
for compulsory insurance come into force.
5. Any restrictions which may apply in the event of residence abroad shall
only apply to pensioners and their dependants who are nationals of any
Member bound by this Convention and reside in the territory of any Member
bound thereby to the extent to which they apply to nationals of the country in
which the pension has been acquired: Provided that any subsidy or supplement
to or fraction of a pension which is payable out of public funds may be withheld.
ARTICLE
14
1. The insurance of employed persons shali be governed by the law
applicable at their place of employment.
2. In the interest of continuity of insurance, exceptions may be made to this
rule by agreement between the Members concerned.
— 155 —
ARTICLE
15
Any Member may prescribe special provisions for frontier workers whose
place of employment is in its territory and whose place of residence is abroad.
ARTICLE
16
In countries which, at the time when this Convention first comes into force,
have no laws or regulations providing for compulsory invalidity insurance, an
existing non-contributory pension scheme which guarantees an individual
right to a pension under the conditions defined in Articles 17 to 23 hereinafter
shall be deemed to satisfy the requirements of this Convention.
ARTICLE
17
A person who becomes generally incapacitated for work and thereby
unable to earn an appreciable remuneration shall be entitled to a pension.
ARTICLE
18
The right to a pension may be made conditional upon the claimant's having
been resident in the territory of the Member for a period immediately preceding
the making of the claim. This period shall be determined by national laws or
regulations but shall not exceed five years.
ARTICLE
19
1. A claimant shall be entitled to a pension if the annual value of his
means does not exceed a limit which shall be fixed by national laws
or regulations with due regard to the minimum cost of living.
2. Means up to a level which shall be determined by national laws or
regulations shall be exempted for the purpose of the assessment of
means.
ARTICLE
20
The rate of pension shall be an amount which, together with any means of
the claimant in excess of the means exempted, is at least sufficient to cover the
essential needs of the pensioner.
ARTICLE
21
1. A claimant shall have a right of appeal in any dispute concerning the
award of a pension or the rate thereof.
2. The appeal shall lie to an authority other than the authority which
gave the decision in the first instance.
ARTICLE
22
1. Foreigners who are nationals of a Member bound by this Convention
shall be entitled to pensions under the same conditions as nationals:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may make the award of a
pension to foreigners conditional upon their having been resident in the
territory of the Member for a period which shall not exceed by more than five
years the period of residence prescribed for nationals.
ARTICLE
23
1. The right to a pension may be forfeited or suspended in whole or in
part if the person concerned
(a) Has brought about his invalidity by a criminal offence or wilful
misconduct;
(b) Has obtained or attempted to obtain a pension by fraud;
— 156 —
(c) Has been sentenced to imprisonment for a criminal offence; or
(d) Has persistently refused to earn his living by work compatible with
his strength and capacity.
2. The pension may be suspended in whole or in part while the person
concerned is entirely maintained at the public expense.
ARTICLE
24
Subject to the provisions of paragraph 5 of Article 13, this Convention
does not refer to the maintenance of pension rights in the event of residence
abroad.
ARTICLE
25
The formal ratifications of this Convention under the conditions set forth
in Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and in the corresponding Parts of the
other Treaties of Peace shall be communicated to the Secretary-General of the
League of Nations for registration.
ARTICLE
26
This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members whose
ratifications have been registered with the Secretariat.
It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the
ratifications of two Members of the International Labour Organisation
have been registered with the Secretary-General.
Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member twelve
months after the date on which its ratification has been registered.
ARTICLE
27
As soon as the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour
Organisation have been registered with the Secretariat, the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations shall so notify all the Members of the International
Labour Organisation. He shall likewise notify them of the registration of
ratifications which may be communicated subsequently by other Members
of the Organisation.
ARTICLE
28
A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the
expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes into
force, by an act communicated to the Secretary-General of the League of
Nations for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until one year
after the date on which it is registered with the Secretariat.
Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does not,
within the year following the expiration of the period of ten years mentioned
in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for in
this Article, will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter, may
denounce this Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years under
the terms provided for in this Article.
ARTICLE
29
At the expiration of each period of ten years after the coming into force of
this Convention, the Governing Body of the International Labour Office shall
present to the General Conference a report on the working of this Convention
and shall consider the desirability of placing on the Agenda of the Conference
the question of its revision in whole or in part.
ARTICLE
30
Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention
in whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise provides,
— 157 —
(a) The ratification by a Member of the new revising
ipso jure involve the immediate denunciation of
notwithstanding the provisions of Article 28 above,
new revising Convention shall have come into force ;
(i) As from the date when the new revising Convention
this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification
Convention shall
this Convention,
if and when the
comes into force,
by the Members.
This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual form and
content for those Members which have ratified it but have not ratified the
revising Convention.
ARTICLE
31
The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
Draft Convention [No. 38] concerning compulsory invalidity1 insurance for
persons employed in agricultural undertakings
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of
the League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Seventeenth Session
on 8 June 1933, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard
to compulsory invalidity insurance, which is included in the second
item on the Agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a
Draft International Convention,
adopts, this twenty-ninth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and thirty-three, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the
Members of the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with the
provisions of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding
Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
ARTICLE 1
Bach Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention undertakes to set up or maintain a scheme of compulsory invalidity
insurance which shall be based on provisions at least equivalent to those
contained in this Convention.
ARTICLE 2
1. The compulsory invalidity insurance scheme shall apply
and non-manual workers, including apprentices, employed in
undertakings, and domestic servants employed in the households of
employers :
2. Provided that any Member may in its national laws or
make such exceptions as it deems necessary in respect of
to manual
agricultural
agricultural
regulations
(a) Workers whose remuneration exceeds a prescribed amount and, where
national laws or regulations do not make this exception general in its
application, any non-manual workers engaged in occupations which
are ordinarily considered as liberal professions;
{b) Workers who are not paid a money wage;
i This Draft Convention had been ratified, on 1 November 1935, by Chile.
— 158 —
(c) Young workers under a prescribed age and workers too old to become
insured when they first enter employment;
(d) Outworkers whose conditions of work are not of a like nature to those
of ordinary wage earners;
(e) Members of the employer's family;
(f) Workers whose employment is of such a nature that, its total duration
being necessarily short, they cannot qualify for benefit, and persons
engaged solely in occasional or subsidiary employment;
(g) Invalid workers and workers in receipt of an invalidity or old-age
pension ;
(h) Retired public officials employed for remuneration and persons possessing a private income, where the retirement pension or private income
is at least equal to the invalidity pension provided by national laws
or regulations;
(¿) Workers who, during their studies, give lessons or work for remuneration in preparation for an occupation corresponding to such studies.
3. Provided also that there may be exempted from liability to insurance
persons who, by virtue of any law, regulations or special scheme, are or will
become entitled to invalidity benefits at least equivalent on the whole to
those provided for in this Convention.
ARTICLES
3-9
[The text is the same as that of Articles 3-9 of Draft Convention No. 37 ;
cf. pp. 151-153.]
ARTICLE
10
1. The insured persons and their employers shall contribute to the financial
resources of the insurance scheme.
2. National laws or regulations may exempt from liability to pay contributions
(a) Apprentices and young workers under a prescribed age;
(b) Workers who are not paid a money wage or whose wages are very
low;
(c) Workers in the service of an employer who pays contributions assessed
on a basis which is not dependent on the number of workers employed.
3. Contributions from employers may be dispensed with under laws or
regulations concerning schemes of national insurance not restricted in scope
to employed persons.
4. The public authorities shall contribute to the financial resources or to
the benefits of insurance schemes covering employed persons in general or
manual workers.
5. National laws or regulations which, at the time of the adoption of this
Convention, do not require contributions from insured persons may continue
not to require such contributions.
ARTICLES
11-31
[The text is the same as that of Articles 11-31 of Draft Convention No. 37;
cf. pp. 154-157.]
— 159 —
Draft Convention [No. 39] concerning compulsory widows' and orphans'
insurance for persons employed in industrial or commercial undertakings,
in the liberal professions, and for outworkers and domestic servants
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Seventeenth Session
on 8 June 1933, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard
to compulsory widows' and orphans' insurance, which is included in the
second item on the Agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a
Draft International Convention,
adopts, this twenty-ninth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and thirty-three, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the
Members of the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with the
provisions of Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding
Parts of the other Treaties of Peace :
ARTICLE 1
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention undertakes to set up or maintain a scheme of compulsory widows'
and orphans' insurance which shall be based on provisions at least equivalent
to those contained in this Convention.
ARTICLE
2
1. The compulsory widows' and orphans' insurance scheme shall apply
to manual and non-manual workers, including apprentices, employed in
industrial or commercial undertakings or in the liberal professions, and to
outworkers and domestic servants:
2. Provided that any Member may in its national laws or regulations
make such exceptions as it deems necessary in respect of
(a) Workers whose remuneration exceeds a prescribed amount and, where
national laws or regulations do not make this exception general in its
application, any non-manual workers engaged in occupations which
are ordinarily considered as liberal professions;
(b) Workers who are not paid a money wage;
(c) Young workers under a prescribed age and workers too old to become
insured when they first enter employment;
(d) Outworkers whose conditions of work are not of a like nature to those
of ordinary wage earners;
(e) Members of the employer's family;
(/) Workers whose employment is of such a nature that, its total duration
being necessarily short, they cannot qualify for benefit and persons
engaged solely in occasional or subsidiary employment;
(g) Invalid workers and workers in receipt of an invalidity or old-age
pension ;
[h) Retired public officials employed for remuneration and persons possessing a private income, where the retirement pension or private income
is at least equal to the invalidity pension provided by national lawsor regulations;
— 160 —
(i)
(/)
Workers who, during their studies, give lessons or work for remuneration in preparation for an occupation corresponding to such studies;
Domestic servants employed in the households of agricultural employers.
3. Provided also that there may be exempted from liability to insurance
persons whose survivors will, by virtue of any law, regulations or special
scheme, become entitled to benefits at least equivalent on the whole to those
provided for in this Convention.
4. This Convention does not apply to seamen and. sea fishermen.
ARTICLE 3
National laws or regulations shall, under conditions to be determined by
them, either entitle persons formerly compulsorily insured who are not in
receipt of a pension to continue their insurance voluntarily or entitle such
persons to maintain their rights by the periodical payment of a fee for the
purpose, unless the said rights are automatically maintained or, in the case
of married women, the husband, if not liable to compulsory insurance, is
permitted to insure voluntarily and thereby to qualify his wife for an old-age
or widow's pension.
ARTICLE 4
1. Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 5, the right to a pension
may be made conditional upon the completion of a qualifying period, which
may involve the payment of a minimum number of contributions since entry
into insurance and during a prescribed period immediately preceding the
happening of the event insured against.
2. The duration of the qualifying period shall not exceed 60 contribution
months, 250 contribution weeks or 1,500 contribution days.
3. Where the completion of the qualifying period involves the payment
of a prescribed number of contributions during a prescribed period immediately
preceding the happening of the event insured against, periods for which
benefit has been paid in respect of temporary incapacity for work or of
unemployment shall be reckoned as contribution periods to such extent and
under such conditions as may be determined by national laws or regulations.
ARTICLE 5
1. An insured person who ceases to be liable to insurance without being
entitled to a benefit representing a return for the contributions credited to
his account shall retain his rights in respect of these contributions:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may terminate rights in
respect of contributions on the expiry of a term which shall be reckoned
from the date when the insured person so ceased to be liable to insurance
and which shall be either variable or fixed:
(a) Where the term is variable, it shall not be less than one-third (less
the periods for which contributions have not been credited) of the
total of the periods for which contributions have been credited since
entry into insurance.
(b) Where the term is fixed, it shall in no case be less than eighteen months
and rights in respect of contributions may be determined on the expiry
of the term unless, in the course thereof, a minimum number of contributions prescribed by national laws or regulations has been credited
to the account of the insured person in virtue of either compulsory or voluntarily continued insurance.
ARTICLE 6
The widows' and orphans' insurance scheme shall as a minimum confer
pension rights on widows who have not remarried and the children of a
deceased insured or pensioned person.
— 161 —
ARTICLE 7
1. The right to a widows' pension may be reserved to widows who are
above a prescribed age or are invalid.
2. The provisions of paragraph 1 shall not apply in the case of special
schemes for non-manual workers.
3. The right to a widows' pension may be restricted to cases where the
marriage has lasted for a prescribed period and was contracted before the
insured or pensioned person had reached a prescribed age or become invalid.
4. The right to a widow's pension may be withheld if, at the time of the
death of the insured or pensioned person, the marriage had been dissolved
or if a separation had been pronounced in proceedings in which the wife
was found solely at fault.
5. Where there are several claimants to a widow's pension, the amount
payable may be limited to that of one pension.
ARTICLE 8
1. Any child who has not reached a prescribed age which shall not be
less than fourteen shall be entitled to a pension in respect of the death of
either parent:
2. Provided that the right to a pension in respect of the death of an
insured or pensioned mother may either be made conditional upon the
mother's having contributed to the support of the child or be made conditional
upon her having been a widow at the time of her death.
3. National laws or regulations shall determine the cases in which a child
other than a legitimate child shall be entitled to a pension.
ARTICLE 9
1. The pension shall, whether or not dependent on the time spent in
insurance, be a fixed sum or a percentage of the remuneration taken into
account for insurance purposes or vary with the amount of the contributions
paid.
2. Where the pension varies with the time spent in insurance and its
award is made conditional upon the completion by the insured person of a
qualifying period, the pension shall, unless a minimum rate is guaranteed,
include a fixed sum or fixed portion not dependent on the time spent in
insurance; where the pension is awarded without any condition as to the
completion of a qualifying period, provision may be made for a guaranteed
minimum rate of pension.
3. Where contributions are graduated according to remuneration, the
remuneration taken into account for this purpose shall also be taken into
account for the purpose of computing the pension, whether or not the pension
varies with the time spent in insurance.
ARTICLE
10
Insurance institutions shall be authorised, under conditions which shall
be determined by national laws or regulations, to grant benefits in kind for
the purpose of preventing, postponing, alleviating or curing invalidity to
persons who are in receipt of or may be entitled to claim a pension on the
ground of invalidity.
ARTICLE
1.
11
The right to benefits may be forfeited or suspended in whole or in part
(a) If death has been caused by a criminal offence committed by or the
wilful misconduct of the insured person or any person who may become
entitled to a survivor's pension; or
(¿) If the insured person or any person who may become entitled to a
survivor's pension has acted fraudulently towards the insurance institution.
11
— 162 —
2. The pension may be suspended in whole or in part while the person
concerned
(a) Is entirely maintained at the public expense or by a social insurance
institution ;
(b) Refuses without valid reason to comply with the doctor's orders or
the instructions relating to the conduct of invalids or voluntarily and
without authorisation removes herself from the supervision of the
insurance institution;
(c) Is in receipt of another periodical cash benefit payable by virtue of
any law or regulations concerning compulsory social insurance, pensions
or workmen's compensation for accidents or occupational diseases;
(d) Having been awarded a widow's pension without any condition as to
age or invalidity, is living with a man as his wife; or
(e) In the case of special schemes for non-manual workers, is in receipt
of remuneration exceeding a prescribed rate.
ARTICLE
12
1. The insured persons and their employers shall contribute to the financial
resources of the insurance scheme.
2. National laws or regulations may exempt from liability to pay contributions
(a) Apprentices and young workers under a prescribed age;
(b) Workers who are not paid a money wage or whose wages are very low.
3. Contributions from employers may be dispensed with under laws or
regulations concerning schemes of national insurance not restricted in scope
to employed persons.
4. The public authorities shall contribute to the financial resources or to
the benefits of insurance schemes covering employed persons in general or
manual workers.
5. National laws or regulations which, at the time of the adoption of this
Convention, do not require contributions from insured persons may continue
not to require such contributions.
'
ARTICLE
13
1. The insurance scheme shall be administered by institutions founded
by the public authorities and not conducted with a view to profit, or by
State insurance funds:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may also entrust its administration to institutions founded on the initiative of the parties concerned
or of their organisations and duly approved by the public authorities.
3. The funds of insurance institutions and State insurance funds shall
be administered separately from the public funds.
4. Representatives of the insured persons shall participate in the management of the insurance institutions under conditions to be determined by
national laws or regulations, which may likewise decide as to the participation
of representatives of employers and of the public authorities.
5. Self-governing insurance institutions shall be under the administrative
and financial supervision of the public authorities.
ARTICLE
14
1. The survivors of a deceased insured or pensioned person shall have a
right of appeal in any dispute concerning benefits.
2. Such disputes shall be referred to special tribunals which shall include
judges, whether professional or not, who are specially cognisant of the purposes
— 163 —
of insurance or are assisted by assessors chosen as representative of insured
persons and employers respectively.
3. In any dispute concerning liability to insurance or the rate of contribution, the employed person and, in the case of schemes providing for an
employer's contribution, his employer shall have a right of appeal.
ARTICLE
15
1. Foreign employed persons shall be liable to insurance and to the
payment of contributions under the same conditions as nationals.
2. The survivors of foreign insured or pensioned persons shall be entitled
under the same conditions as nationals to the benefits derived from the
contributions credited to their account.
3. The survivors of foreign insured or pensioned persons shall, if nationals
of a Member which is bound by this Convention and the laws or regulations
of which therefore provide for a State subsidy towards the financial resources
or benefits of the insurance scheme in conformity with Article 12, also be
entitled to any subsidy or supplement to or fraction of a pension which is
payable out of public funds:
4. Provided that national laws or regulations may restrict to nationals
the right to any subsidy or supplement to or fraction of a pension which is
payable out of public funds and granted solely to the survivors of insured
persons who have exceeded a prescribed age at the date when the laws or
regulations providing for compulsory insurance come into force.
5. Any restrictions which may apply in the event of residence abroad
shall only apply to pensioners who are nationals of any Member bound by
this Convention and reside in the territory of any Member bound thereby
to the extent to which they apply to nationals of the country in which the
pension has been acquired: Provided that any subsidy or supplement to or
fraction of a pension which is payable out of public funds may be withheld.
ARTICLE
16
X. The insurance of employed persons shall be governed by the law
applicable at their place of employment.
2. In the interest of continuity of insurance exceptions may be made to
this rule by agreement between the Members concerned.
ARTICLE
17
Any Member may prescribe special provisions for frontier workers whose
place of employment is in its territory and whose place of residence is abroad.
ARTICLE
18
In countries which, at the time when this Convention first comes into
force, have no laws or regulations providing for compulsory widows' and
orphans' insurance, an existing non-contributory pension scheme which
guarantees an individual right to a pension under the conditions defined in
Articles 19 to 25 hereinafter shall be deemed to satisfy the requirements of
this Convention.
ARTICLE
1.
19
The following shall be entitled to a pension:
(a) Every widow who has not remarried and who has at least two dependent
children ;
(b) Every orphan, that is to say, every child who has lost both parents.
2.
National laws or regulations shall define
— 164 —
(a) The cases in which a child other than a legitimate child shall be deemed
to be the child of a widow for the purpose of entitling her to a pension ;
(b) The age until which a child shall be considered dependent upon a
widow or shall be entitled to an orphan's pension: Provided that this
age shall in no case be less than fourteen.
ARTICLE
20
1. The right to a widow's pension may be made conditional upon the
residence in the territory of the Member
(a) Of the deceased husband during a period immediately preceding his
death; and
(6) Of the widow during a period immediately preceding the making of
her claim for a pension.
2. The right to an orphan's pension may be made conditional upon the
residence, in the territory of the Member during a period immediately preceding
death, of whichever of the parents died the more recently.
3. The period of residence in the territory of the Member to have been
completed by a widow or a deceased parent shall be prescribed by national
laws or regulations but shall not exceed five years.
ARTICLE
21
1. A claimant shall be entitled to a widow's or orphan's pension if the
annual value of the claimant's means, including any means of dependent
children or orphans, does not exceed a limit which shall be fixed by national
laws or regulations with due regard to the minimum cost of living.
2. Means up to a level which shall be determined by national laws or
regulations shall be exempted for the purpose of the assessment of means.
ARTICLE
22
The rate of pension shall be an amount which, together with any means
of the claimant in excess of the means exempted, is at least sufficient to cover
the essential needs of the pensioner.
ARTICLE
23
1. A claimant shall have a right of appeal in any dispute concerning the
award of a pension or the rate thereof.
2. The appeal shall lie to an authority other than the authority which
gave the decision in the first instance.
ARTICLE
24
1. Foreign widows and orphans shall, if nationals of a Member bound
by this Convention, be entitled to pensions under the same conditions as
nationals:
2. Provided that national laws or regulations may make the award of a
pension to foreigners conditional upon the completion of a period of residence
in the territory of the Member which shall not exceed by more than five
years the period of residence provided for in Article 20.
ARTICLE
25
1. The right to a pension may be forfeited or suspended in whole or in
part if the widow or the person who has undertaken responsibility for the
care of the orphan has obtained or attempted to obtain a pension by fraud.
2. The pension may be suspended in whole or in part while the person
concerned is entirely maintained at the public expense.
— 165 —
ARTICLE
26
Subject to the provisions of paragraph 5 of Article 15, this Convention
does not refer to the maintenance of pension rights in the event of residence
abroad.
ARTICLE
27
The formal ratification of this Convention under the conditions set forth
in Part XIII of the Treaty of "Versailles and in the corresponding Parts of
the other Treaties of Peace shall be communicated to the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations for registration.
ARTICLE
28
This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members whose ratifications have been registered with the Secretariat.
It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the ratification of two Members of the International Labour Organisation have been
registered with the Secretary-General.
Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member twelve
months after the date on which its ratification has been registered.
ARTICLE
29
As soon as the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour
Organisation have been registered with the Secretariat, the Secretary-General
of the League of Nations shall so notify all the Members of the International
Labour Organisation. He shall likewise notify them of the registration of
ratifications which may be communicated subsequently by other Members
of the Organisation.
ARTICLE
30
A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the
expiration of ten years from the date on which the Convention first comes
into force, by an act communicated to the Secretary-General of the League
of Nations for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect until
one year after the date on which it is registered with the Secretariat.
Bach Member which has ratified this Convention and which does not,
within the year following the expiration of the period of ten years mentioned
in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for
in this Article, will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter,
may denounce this Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years
under the terms provided for in this Article.
ARTICLE
31
At the expiration of each period of ten years after the coming into force
of this Convention, the Governing Body of the International Labour Office
shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this
Convention and shall consider the desirability of placing on the Agenda of
the Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.
ARTICLE
32
Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention
in whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise provides,
(a) The ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention shall
ipso jure involve the immediate denunciation of this Convention,
notwithstanding the provisions of Article 30 above, if and when the
new revising Convention shall have come into force;
(è) As from the date when the new revising Convention comes into force,
this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification by the Members.
166 —
This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual form and
content for those Members which have ratified it but have not ratified the
revising Convention.
ARTICLE
33
The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
Draft Convention [No. 40] concerning compulsory widows' and orphans'
insurance for persons employed in agricultural undertakings
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Seventeenth Session
on 8 June 1933, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard
to compulsory widows' and orphans' insurance which is included in the
second item on the Agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a
Draft International Convention,
adopts, this twenty-ninth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and thirty-three, the following Draft Convention for ratification by the
Members of the International Labour Organisation, in accordance with the
provisions of Part X I I I of the Treaty of Versailles and of the corresponding
Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
ARTICLE 1
Each Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this
Convention undertakes to set up or maintain a scheme of compulsory widows'
and orphans' insurance whicli shall be based on provisions at least equivalent
to those contained in this Convention.
ARTICLE 2
1. The compulsory widows' and orphans' insurance scheme shall apply to
manual and non-manual workers, including apprentices, employed in agricultural undertakings, and to domestic servants employed in the households
of agricultural employers:
2. Provided that any Member may in its national laws or regulations
make such exceptions as it deems necessary in respect of
(a) Workers whose remuneration exceeds a prescribed amount and, where
national laws or regulations do not make this exception general in its
application, any non-manual workers engaged in occupations which
are ordinarily considered as liberal professions;
(b) Workers who are not paid a money wage;
(c) Young workers under a prescribed age and workers too old to become
insured when they first enter employment;
(d) Outworkers whose conditions of work are not of a like nature to those
of ordinary wage earners;
(e) Members of the employer's family;
— 167 —
(/)
Workers whose employment is of such a nature that, its total duration
being necessarily short, they cannot qualify for benefit, and persons
engaged solely in occasional or subsidiary employment;
(g) Invalid workers and workers in receipt of an invalidity or old-age
pension ;
(fe) Retired public officials employed for remuneration and persons possessing a private income, where the retirement pension or private income
is at least equal to the invalidity pension provided by national laws
or regulations;
(i) Workers who, during their studies, give lessons or work for remuneration
in preparation for an occupation corresponding to such studies.
3. Provided also that there may be exempted from liability to insurance
persons whose survivors will, by virtue of any law, regulations or special
scheme, become entitled to benefits at least equivalent on the whole to those
provided for in this Convention.
ARTICLES 3-11
[The text is the same as that of Articles 3-11 of Draft Convention No. 39;
cf. pp. 160-162.]
ARTICLE
12
1. The insured persons and their employers shall contribute to the financial
resources of the insurance scheme.
2. National laws or regulations may exempt from liability to pay contributions :
(a) Apprentices and young workers under a prescribed age;
(b) Workers who are not paid a money wage or whose wages are very
low;
(c) Workers in the service of an employer who pays contributions assessed
on a basis which is not dependent on the number of workers employed.
3. Contributions from employers may be dispensed with under laws or
regulations concerning schemes of national insurance not restricted in scope
to employed persons.
4. The public authorities shall contribute to the financial resources or to
the benefits of insurance schemes covering employed persons in general or
manual workers.
5. National laws or regulations which, at the time of the adoption of this
Convention, do not require contributions from insured persons may continue
not to require such contributions.
ARTICLES
13-33
[The text is the same as that of Articles 13-33 of Draft Convention No. 39;
cf. pp. 162-166.]
Recommendation [No. 43] concerning the general principles of invalidity,
old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation of the
League of Nations,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office, and having met in its Seventeenth Session
on 8 June 1933, and
— 168 - ,
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard
to invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance, which is
included in the second item on the Agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals should take the form of a
recommendation,
adopts, this twenty-ninth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and thirty-three, the following Recommendation 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 Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles and of the
corresponding Parts of the other Treaties of Peace:
The Conference,
Having adopted Draft Conventions concerning compulsory invalidity,
old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance for persons employed in industrial
or commercial undertakings, in the liberal professions, and for outworkers
and domestic servants and concerning compulsory invalidity, old-age and
widows' and orphans' insurance for persons employed in agricultural undertakings, and
Considering that these Draft Conventions lay down the minimum conditions
to be complied with from the beginning by every scheme of compulsory
invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance, and
Considering that it is desirable to indicate a number of general principles
which practice shows to be best calculated to promote a just, effective and
appropriate organisation of invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans'
insurance ;
Recommends that each Member should take the following principles and
rules into consideration:
I
SCOPE
1. (a) Compulsory invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance
for employed persons should include, irrespective of age, sex or nationality,
every person who is ordinarily engaged in employment for remuneration,
(b) Where economic, social and administrative conditions permit, national
laws or regulations should provide that invalidity, old-age and widows' and
orphans' insurance should also include persons of small means working on their
own account in industry, commerce and agriculture.
2. If, however, it is considered advisable to fix a minimum age for entry
into insurance, such age should be as close as possible to the age at which
compulsory school attendance ceases and at which the choice of an occupation
is made.
3. The fixing of a maximum age for entry into insurance is only justified
in insurance schemes which make the right to a pension conditional upon the
completion of a qualifying period and then only for workers who, when they
take up employment for remuneration as their ordinary occupation, are too
old to be able to complete the qualifying period before the normal pensionable
age.
4. Where it is considered advisable to fix (apart from the limitation,
inherent in social insurance, of the remuneration taken into account for
insurance purposes) a maximum remuneration as a criterion of liability to
insurance, only such workers should thereby be excluded as, by reason of the
fact that their remuneration is considerably in excess of the general level of
wages, may be deemed to be capable of making provision by themselves against
invalidity, old-age and death.
— 169 —
II
PENSIONS
A. — Qualifying Period and Insurance Periods
5. The qualifying period prescribed by insurance schemes which provide
for awarding all pensioners a pension at a fixed rate or varying with the remuneration taken into account for insurance purposes should be restricted to a
contribution period which shall not be longer than is strictly necessary to
preclude persons from entering insurance with intent to take undue advantage
of it and to ensure some consideration for the benefits afforded.
6. The qualifying period for the purpose of an invalidity or survivor's
pension should in no case exceed 60 contribution months, 250 contribution
weeks or 1,500 contribution days and the qualifying period for the purpose of
an old-age pension should not exceed twice this maximum.
7. Periods during which the insured person is incapable of work by reason
of sickness, is not available for work by reason of childbirth or is involuntarily
unemployed should, within limits to be prescribed, count towards the qualifying period, even where no contributions are paid for such periods by sickness
or maternity insurance or by an unemployment fund.
8. (o) Insurance schemes which place limitations on the retention of
rights in respect of contributions which have been paid should guarantee
retention of such rights for a term of at least eighteen months reckoned from
the last contribution payment, this term being prolonged, in schemes in which
contributions are graduated according to remuneration, up to at least one-third
(less the periods for which contributions have not been credited) of the total
of the periods for which contributions have been credited since entry into
insurance. In reckoning this term, periods during which the insured person
was incapable of work by reason of sickness, was not available for work by
reason of childbirth or was involuntarily unemployed or engaged in military
service, should not be considered as periods for which contributions have
not been credited.
(b) Any further retention of rights in respect of contributions may be
made conditional either upon resumption of payment of contributions in
virtue of compulsory or voluntarily continued insurance or upon the payment
of a moderate fee for this purpose ; in insurance schemes in which contributions
are graduated according to remuneration and which provide for pensions
varying with the time spent in insurance, resumption of payment of contributions should operate to increase the value of the rights in course of
acquisition.
9. A person formerly insured should be able to recover rights already
expired, by the payment of a prescribed number of contributions in virtue
of compulsory or voluntarily continued insurance; where the pension varies
with the number or amount of the contributions credited to the account of
the insured person, the number of contributions so prescribed should be less
than the number required for the initial qualifying period.
10. Sums required to be paid for maintaining the rights in course of
acquisition of insured persons who are unemployed for a long time should
—in virtue of the impossibility of putting the expense of such payments
solely on the insured persons in employment—be obtained through the
financial assistance of the public authorities; and the same principle should
apply to payments for the purpose of consolidating and enhancing the rights
of such unemployed persons.
B. — Old-Age Pensions
11. For insurance schemes which fix the pensionable age above sixty it
is recommended, as a means of relieving the labour market and of ensuring
rest for the aged, that the pensionable age should be reduced to sixty, in so
— 172 —
in respect of the cost of decent burial should be paid by widows' and orphans'
insurance on the death of an insured person.
E. — Provisions for the Suspension or Reduction of Pensions
28. Where provision is made for the suspension or reduction of invalidity,
old-age or survivors' pensions in cases where a concurrent title exists to a
pension acquired under another scheme of social insurance or a scheme of
pensions or workmen's compensation for accidents or occupational diseases,
the provisions concerning suspension or reduction should be such as to enable
the pensioner to receive in its entirety whichever of the pensions is the higher
and in any case he should be paid that part of the invalidity, old-age or survivor's pension which corresponds to the insured person's own contributions.
29. Where.an invalidity or old-age pension is suspended for reason other
than the existence of a concurrent title to another pension, the dependent
family of the person whose pension is suspended should be awarded a
maintenance allowance equal to the whole or to a part of the pension.
Ill
FINANCIAL
RESOURCES
30. (a) The financial resources of the insurance scheme should be provided
by contributions from the insured persons and contributions from their
employers.
(b) The public authorities should contribute to the insurance scheme.
31. As a general rule the contribution of the insured person should not
be higher than the contribution of his employer.
32. The employer should be responsible for the whole or the greater part
of the joint contribution in respect of workers who are remunerated only in
kind, outworkers and apprentices whose remuneration does not exceed a
prescribed amount.
33. The State should be responsible for the contributions in respect of
periods of compulsory military service performed by persons who were insured
before beginning their military service.
IV
ADMINISTRATION
34. National laws or regulations should provide that insured women are
adequately represented on the administrative bodies of invalidity, old-age
and widows' and orphans' insurance.
E. — MAINTENANCE OF MIGRANTS' PENSION RIGHTS
Draft Convention [No. 48] concerning the establishment of an international
scheme for the maintenance of rights under invalidity, old-age and widows'
and orphans' insurance
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 Nineteenth Session
on 4 June 1935, and
— 173 —
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard
to the maintenance of rights in course of acquisition and acquired rights
under invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance on behalf
of workers who tranfer their residence from one country to another,
which is the first item on the Agenda of the Session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of a
Draft International Convention,
adopts, this twenty-second day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred
and thirty-five, the following Draft Convention which may be cited as the
Maintenance of Migrants' Pension Rights Convention, 1935:
PART I. — ESTABLISHMENT OF INTERNATIONAL SCHEME
Article 1
1. There is hereby established between Members of the International
Labour Organisation a scheme for the maintenance of rights in course of
acquisition with and of rights acquired with compulsory invalidity, old-age
and widows'.and orphans' insurance institutions (hereinafter called insurance
institutions).
2. References to Members in Parts II, III, IV and V of this Convention
shall be construed as including only Members of the International Labour
Organisation bound by this Convention.
PART II. — MAINTENANCE OF RIGHTS IN COURSE OF ACQUISITION
Article 2
1. The insurance periods spent by persons who have been affiliated to
insurance institutions of two or more Members shall, irrespective of the
nationality of such persons, be totalised by each such institution in accordance
with the "following rules.
2. For the maintenance of rights in course of acquisition the periods to
be totalised shall be:
(a) Contribution periods;
(¿>) Periods in respect of which contributions were not payable but during
which rights are maintained under the laws or regulations under which
they were spent;
(c) Periods during which a cash benefit has been paid under an invalidity
or old-age insurance scheme of another Member; and
(d) Periods during which a cash benefit has been paid under some other
social insurance scheme of another Member, in so far as a corresponding
benefit would, under the laws or regulations governing the institution
which is totalising, maintain rights in course of acquisition.
3.
For the purposes of:
(i) Determining whether any conditions as to the qualifying period
(minimum duration of liability to insurance) or the number of
contributions prescribed for entitlement to special advantages
(guaranteed minima) have been fulfilled;
(n) The recovery of rights;
(in) The right to enter voluntary insurance; and
(iv) The right to medical treatment and attendance;
— 174 —
the periods to be totalised shall be:
(a) Contribution periods; and
(b) Periods in respect of which contributions were not payable but which
are counted for the purpose of the qualifying period both under the
laws or regulations under which they were spent and under the laws
or regulations governing the institution which is totalising.
4. Provided that, where under the laws or regulations of a Member periods
spent in an occupation covered by a special scheme are alone to be taken
into account for the purpose of determining whether a claimant is entitled
to certain advantages, the periods to be totalised for the purpose set forth
in paragraphs 2 and 3 shall be restricted to periods spent under the corresponding special insurance schemes of other Members or, in respect of a Member
with no special insurance scheme for the occupation concerned, to periods
spent in that occupation under the insurance scheme applicable thereto. •
5. Contribution periods and assimilated periods spent simultaneously with
institutions of two or more Members shall be reckoned once for the purpose
of totalisation.
Article 3
1. Each insurance institution from which on the basis of the totalised
insurance periods the claimant is entitled to benefit shall calculate the amount
of such benefit according to the laws and regulations governing the said
institution.
2. Benefits or benefit components which vary with the time spent in
insurance and are determined with sole regard to the periods spent under
the laws and regulations governing the institution liable shall be payable
without reduction.
3. Benefits or benefit components which are determined independently of
the time spent in insurance and consist of a fixed sum, a percentage of the
remuneration taken into account for insurance purpose, or a multiple of the
average contribution, may be reduced in the ratio of the periods counted for
the purpose of reckoning benefits according to the laws and regulations
governing the institution liable to the total of the periods counted for the
purpose of reckoning benefits according to the laws and regulations governing
all the institutions concerned.
4. The provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3 shall apply to any subsidy or
supplement to or fraction of a pension which is payable out of public funds.
5. The apportionment of the cost of medical treatment and attendance
is not regulated by this Convention.
Article 4
In cases in which the total of the insurance periods spent with the insurance
institutions of a Member does not amount to twenty-six contribution weeks,
the institution or institutions with which they were spent may decline to
recognise any liability for benefit. Periods in respect of which liability for
benefit has been so declined shall not be taken into account by any of the
other institutions concerned when making the reduction permitted by Article 3,
paragraph 3.
Article 5
1. If a person who is entitled to benefit from the insurance institutions
of at least two Members would but for this Convention be entitled to receive
from any such institution in respect of periods spent with it a benefit greater
than the total of the benefits to which he is entitled under Article 3, he shall
be entitled to receive from that institution a complementary benefit equal
to the difference.
2. Where such complementary benefits are due from more than one
institution, the total amount due to the beneficiary shall be the highest such
— 175 —
benefit due from any one of them and the liability for this amount shall be
apportioned among them in proportion to the complementary benefit which
would have been due from each individually.
Article 6
Provision may be made by agreement between the Members concerned for:
(a) The reckoning of benefits by a method which diners from that prescribed
in Article 3 but gives a result which is at least equivalent on the whole
to that given by applying the said Article, subject to the total of the
benefits payable never being less than the highest benefit payable by
any one insurance institution in respect of periods spent with it;
(b) Enabling an insurance institution of one Member to discharge its
liability to the insured person and his dependants by paying to the
insurance institution of another Member to which he has become
affiliated the capital representing the rights in course of acquisition
by him at the date at which he ceased to be affiliated to the institution,
subject to the latter institution consenting thereto and undertaking
to apply the capital for the purpose of crediting rights;
(c) Limiting the total of the benefits granted by the insurance institutions
of the Members to the amount due on the basis of the totalised
insurance periods from the institution governed by the most favourable
laws and regulations.
Article 7
A claimant shall not be required to submit his claim for benefit to more
than one of the insurance institutions to which he has been affiliated. This
institution shall then inform the other institutions mentioned in the claim.
Article 8
For the purpose of converting sums expressed in the currency of another
Member, insurance institutions shall, when dealing with claims for benefit,
adopt the relation between the two currencies which, on the first day of the
quarter during which the claim was submitted, obtained on the principal
foreign exchange market of the Member in the currency of which the sum
is expressed: Provided that provision may be made for another method of
conversion by agreement between the Members concerned.
Article 9
Any Member may decline to apply the provisions of this Part of this
Convention in its relations with a Member the laws and regulations of which
do not cover the risk in respect of which a benefit is claimed.
PART III.
— MAINTENANCE OF ACQUIRED RIGHTS
Article 10
1. Persons who have been affiliated to an insurance institution of a
Member and their dependants shall be entitled to the entirety of the benefits
the right to which has been acquired in virtue of their insurance:
(a) If they are resident in the territory of a Member, irrespective of their
nationality ;
(b) If they are nationals of a Member, irrespective of their place of residence.
2. Provided that any subsidy or supplement to or fraction of a pension
which is payable out of public funds may be withheld from persons who
are not nationals of a Member.
— 176 —
3. Provided also that, for a period of five years from the first coming
into force of this Convention, a Member may reserve the payment of any
subsidy or supplement to or fraction of a pension which is payable out of
public funds to the nationals of Members with which it had concluded
supplementary agreements to that effect.
Article 11
1. Pensions the right to which is maintained under Article 10 shall not
be commuted for lump sums smaller than their capital value.
2. Provided that the insurance institution liable for benefit may commute
pensions the monthly value of which is inconsiderable for lump sums calculated
according to the laws and regulations governing the said institution, subject
to the said sums not being reduced on the ground of residence abroad.
Article 12
1. The provisions of the laws or regulations of a Member permitting the
reduction or suspension of benefit if the person concerned has concurrent
rights to other social insurance benefits or is in employment involving compulsory insurance may be applied to beneficiaries under this Convention in
respect of benefits payable under an insurance scheme of another Member
or in respect of employment in the territory of another Member.
2. Provided that provisions permitting reduction or suspension in the
case of concurrent benefits in respect of the same risk shall not apply to
benefits the right to which is acquired under Part II of this Convention.
Article 13
An insurance institution liable for benefit in virtue of this Convention
may discharge in the currency of its own country its liability to all persons
entitled to such benefit.
PART IV.
— MUTUAL ASSISTANCE IN ADMINISTRATION
Article 14
1. The authorities and insurance institutions of each Member shall afford
assistance to those of other Members to the same extent as if they were
applying their own laws and regulations relating to social insurance, and
more particularly shall, at the request of an institution of any Member, carry
out the investigations and medical examinations necessary to determine
whether the persons in receipt of benefits for which the latter institution is
liable satisfy the conditions for entitlement to such benefits.
2. In so far as the Members concerned do not otherwise agree, the
expenses to be repaid for assistance so afforded shall be an amount determined
according to the scale of charges of the institution or authority which has
afforded assistance or, in the absence of such a scale, the expenditure incurred.
Article .15
Any exception from fees granted by the laws or regulations of a Member
in respect of documents furnished to its authorities or insurance institutions
shall be extended to the corresponding documents furnished in connection
with the application of this Convention to the authorities and insurance
institutions of any other Member.
Article 16
With the consent of the competent central authorities of the Members
concerned, an insurance institution liable for benefit to a beneficiary resident
in the territory of another Member may, on terms agreed between the two
institutions, entrust the insurance institution of the place of residence of the
beneficiary with the payment of such benefit on its behalf.
— 177 —
PAKT V. — OPERATION OF INTERNATIONAL SCHEME
Article 17
Every Member which at the date of its ratification of this Convention
has not established such a scheme undertakes to establish within twelve
months from that date either:
(a) A compulsory insurance scheme under which pensions are payable at
an age not later than sixty-five to the majority of persons employed
in industrial and commercial undertakings; or
(b) A compulsory invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance
scheme covering a substantial proportion of the persons employed in
industrial and commercial undertakings.
Article 18
1. Each Member shall treat the nationals of other Members on the same
footing as its own nationals for the purpose of liability to compulsory insurance
and for the purpose of insurance benefits, including any subsidy or supplement
to or fraction of a pension which is payable out of public funds.
2. Provided that any Member may restrict to its own nationals the right
to any subsidy or supplement to or fraction of a pension which is payable
out of public funds and granted solely to insured persons who have exceeded
a prescribed age at the date when the laws or regulations providing for
compulsory insurance come into force.
Article 19
The provisions of this Convention may be derogated from by treaties
between Members which do not affect the rights and duties of Members not
parties to the treaty and which make definite provision for the maintenance
of rights in course of acquisition and of acquired rights under conditions at
least as favourable on the whole as those provided for in this Convention.
Article 20
1. For the purpose of assisting Members in applying this Convention
there is hereby established in connection with the International Labour
Office a Commission consisting of one delegate for each Member together
with three persons appointed respectively by the government, employers'
and workers' representatives upon the Governing Body of the Office. The
Commission shall regulate its own procedure.
2. At the request of one or more Members concerned, the Commission,
which shall be guided by the principles and purposes of this Convention,
shall make recommendations as to the manner in which it shall be applied.
Article 21
1. Where, prior to the coming into force of this Convention, a pension
has not been awarded or the payment of a pension has been suspended on
account of the residence abroad of the person concerned, the pension shall
be awarded or the payment of the pension resumed in pursuance of the
Convention as from the date of the coming into force thereof for the Member
concerned.
2. In applying this Convention account shall be taken of insurance periods
prior to its coming into force if account would have been taken of such periods
if this Convention had been in force during these periods.
3. At the request of the person concerned claims settled before the coming
into force of this Convention shall, unless they have been settled by the
12
— 178 —
payment of a lump sum, be reviewed. Review shall not involve the payment
of arrears of, or the refund of, benefits for the period prior to the coming into
force of the Convention for the Member concerned.
Article 22
;
1. The denunciation of this Convention by a Member shall not affect the
liabilities of its insurance institutions in respect of claims which matured
before the denunciation took effect.
2. Rights in course of acquisition which are maintained in pursuance of
this Convention shall not lapse by reason of the denunciation thereof: their
further maintenance during the period subsequent to the date on which the
Convention ceases to be in force shall be regulated by the laws and regulations
governing the institution concerned.
PART VI.
— FINAL PROVISIONS
Article 23
The formal ratification of this Convention shall be communicated to the
Secretary-General of the League of Nations for registration.
Article 24
1. This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the
International Labour Organisation whose ratifications have been registered
with the Secretary-General.
2. It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the
ratifications of two Members have been registered with the Secretary-General.
3. Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member
twelve months after the date on which its ratification has been registered.
Article 25
As soon as the ratifications of two Members of the International Labour
Organisation have been registered, the Secretary-General of the League of
Nations shall notify all the Members of the International Labour Organisation.
He shall likewise notify them of the registration of ratifications which may
be communicated subsequently by other Members of the Organisation.
Article 26
1. A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after
the expiration of five years from the date on which the Convention first
comes into force, by an act communicated to the Secretary-General of the
League of Nations for registration. Such denunciation shall not take effect
until one year after the date on which it is registered.
2. Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does not,
within the year following the expiration of the period of five years mentioned
in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation provided for
in this Article, will be bound for another period of five years and, thereafter,
may denounce this Convention at the expiration of each period of five years
under the terms provided for in this Article.
Article 27
At the expiration of each period of five years after the coming into force
of this Convention, the Governing Body of the International Labour Office
shall present to the General Conference a report on the working of this
Convention and shall consider the desirability of placing on the Agenda of
the Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.
— 179 —
Article 28
1. Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention
in whole or in part, then, unless the new Convention otherwise provides,
(a) The ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention shall
ipso jure involve the immediate denunciation of this Convention,
notwithstanding the provisions of Article 26 above, if and when the
new revising Convention shall have come into force;
(b) As from the date when the new revising Convention comes into force
this Convention shall cease to be open to ratification by the Members.
2. This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual form
and content for those Members which have ratified it but have not ratified
the revising Convention.
Article 29
The French and English texts of this Convention shall both be authentic.
APPENDIX II
Texts of the Guiding Principles, laid down by the International
Committee of Experts on Social Insurance, for Curative and Preventive Assistance to be provided by Invalidity, Old-Age, and Widows'
and Orphans' Insurance Institutions, and for the Economical Administration of Medical and Pharmaceutical Benefits to be provided
by Sickness Insurance Institutions.
The Conventions and Recommendations adopted by the Conference
do not constitute the whole effort of the International Labour Organisation in the sphere of social insurance.
Since 1921 the International Labour Office has consulted its Committee
of Experts on Social Insurance on certain essential problems which arise
in regard to covering the risks of loss of earning capacity and death.
Most of the opinions given were used partly to form .the basis of the
proposed Draft Conventions and Recommendations submitted later
to the International Labour Conference. As the Conventions and
Recommendations which were adopted are dealt with in Appendix I,
it was not thought necessary to reproduce here the original opinions
on which the texts were based. It has seemed useful,' however, to reproduce in their entirety the guiding principles laid down by the Committee
of Experts for curative and preventive assistance to be provided by
invalidity, old-age, and widows' and orphans' insurance institutions,
and for the economical administration of medical and pharmaceutical
benefits to be provided by sickness insurance institutions. These problems are of a highly technical nature which it has not yet seemed
practicable to deal with in a proposed Draft Convention or Recommendation to be submitted to the Conference, but they are in the forefront
of the questions which are at present occupying the attention of the
social insurance institutions.
GUIDING P R I N C I P L E S OF CURATIVE AND PREVENTIVE ACTION
BY INVALIDITY, O L D - A G E , AND W I D O W S ' AND ORPHANS' INSURANCE
INSTITUTIONS
At its Sixteenth Session the International Labour Conference held a
first discussion on the question of insurance against invalidity, old-age
andjwidows' and orphans' insurance. The Conference accepted the
proposals of the International Labour Office, and asked the Office to
consult the Governments on the part to be played by invalidity, old-age
and widows' and orphans' insurance in the protection of the health of
insured persons, with special reference to curative and preventive
— 181 —
measures in the form of insurance benefits, and the share of insurance
schemes in the campaign against social diseases and the development
of the health services of the country.
I n t h e course of the discussion, it was suggested t h a t it might be well
t o convene a meeting of specialists in t h e medical questions raised b y
insurance against invalidity, old age and death, for the purpose of
comparing the experience of different nations and outlining t h e
guiding principles of curative and preventive action b y insurance
institutions.
The International Labour Office, with the authority of its Governing
Body, invited experts to the meeting. The conclusions reached b y this
meeting, which was held at t h e Office from 12 to 14 October 1932, are
given below. .
CURATIVE AND PREVENTIVE ASSISTANCE IN INDIVIDUAL CASES
I.
Purpose of Assistance.
(1) Clinical and Social Restoration. Invalidity, old-age and widows' and
orphans' insurance should take measures to provide the sick persons for whom
it is responsible with appropriate medical assistance with a view to the recovery
of health, the diminution of suffering and the prevention of aggravation.
It is especially important, in connection with invalidity insurance, for it to
take action whenever there is a possibility of removing or diminishing invalidity
which results from sickness or of preventing or postponing invalidity which
is impending.
II. Beneficiaries of Assistance.
(2) Insured Persons and Pensioners. All insured persons and pensioners
should be eligible for assistance as soon as and in so far as they are not entitled
to it by law at the hands of another branch of insurance or of a public medical
service available to these classes.
(3) Members of the Family of Insured Persons and Pensioners. The benefits
of assistance ought to be extended to the wife or husband and young children
of insured persons and insurance pensioners.
III. Elements and Methods of Assistance.
(4) Assistance Benefits. An efficacious system of assistance requires a
medical service so organised as to place at the disposal of its beneficiaries
every means of detecting and treating diseases in their earliest stages.
(5) Examination and Diagnosis. The system of assistance should provide
beneficiaries and the doctors attending them with every facility for establishing
an early diagnosis which is complete and takes account in particular of the
social and economic circumstances of the individual (wages, family, housing,
etc.).
(6) Treatment and Attendance. Assistance should comprise in particular
the following elements:
(1) Treatment in the consulting room or in the patient's home by a
general practitioner and the service of specialists;
(2) The supply of drugs and prostheses;
(3) Treatment and attendance in a hospital or other curative
institution ;
(4) Home attendance by trained nurses.
The treatment should be adequate, that is to say, should comprise all the
resources of modern medicine.
It should be appropriate, i.e. carried out on a plan drawn up with due regard
to the medical and social data.
— 182 —
I t should be economical, i.e. not going beyond what is necessary, avoid all
useless or superfluous orders and prescriptions, and from a number of methods
of treatment of equal efficacy and rapidity choose the cheapest.
PARTICIPATION OF INSURANCE IN THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST SOCIAL DISEASES
I.
Purpose of the Campaign against Social Diseases.
(7) The essential purpose of this campaign is to protect the social group
which is threatened by these diseases through the organisation of collective
preventive action, namely:
(a) By direct and specific action against the disease and its seat;
(£>) By indirect action for the purpose of protecting persons in contact
with the patient, of improving housing and nutrition and of strengthening resistance to the disease.
II.
Elements of the Campaign against Social Diseases.
(8) Ascertainment.
The success of the campaign against social diseases
depends, in the first place, on systematic ascertainment and early diagnosis,
since it is indispensable to begin treatment as soon as the first signs of disease
appear, and afford the persons threatened by disease protection against it.
(9) The campaign against social diseases is facilitated when persons suffering
from or threatened by disease present themselves for examination on their
own initiative.
(10) All the organisations which are associated in the campaign against
social diseases ought to inform one another (independently of notifications
which are required by law) within five days of cases of death and cases of
disease which have been ascertained or are suspected.
(11) In order to reach the sources of the disease it is necessary to organise
the preventive examination of persons who are in contact with the patient.
(12) It is likewise important to arrange for a periodical examination of
social groups which are especially liable to disease by reason of their housing
conditions, nutrition, their occupation, mode of life, etc.
(13) Diagnosis. The establishment of an early and complete diagnosis
calls for utilisation of resources of laboratories (bacteriological, chemical,
microscopic, serological, etc., examinations and analyses) and radiology.
The medical diagnosis, supplemented by a consideration of the social
circumstances of the patient, renders it possible to draw up a systematic plan
of treatment.
(14) Curative Treatment. Curative measures comprise general and specialist
medical treatment and attendance, and the supply of drugs and prostheses;
they are supplemented by economic and social assistance and by after-care.
(15) Non-residential Treatment. The treatment will be given as a rule in
the doctor's consulting room or at the patient's house.
Nevertheless, for patients who are unable to obtain elsewhere the treatment
which they need, and where treatment has to be given by persons possessing
special qualifications, special treatment centres are desirable.
(16) Residential Treatment.
Treatment in hospital should be granted
where the nature or seriousness of the disease requires a kind of treatment
or attendance which can only be given in an institution, or where the necessary
and adequate care cannot be afforded to the patient in his home by reason of
his family circumstances or the unsuitability of his dwelling, or lastly, where
the members of his family have to be protected against infection.
(17) Assistance of Family of Hospital Patient. Benefits in cash should
be granted to the members of the family of a hospital patient living in his house
and mainly dependent on him.
(18) Economic and Social Assistance.
Benefits in cash represent an
important factor in the campaign against social disease, especially where
— 183 —
they enable the standards of nutrition and housing to be maintained or
improved.
Other benefits may be found indispensable for the success of the treatment,
especially :
Benefits provided by way of social service : supervision of the execution
of the doctor's orders, education of the patient and those about him;
Benefits by way of occupational assistance: facilities for changing
occupation, training to resume normal life and employment.
(19) After-Care. The results of treatment should be consolidated by
admission to convalescent homes, periodical observation and examination,
and the education of convalescents and their family.
(20) Prevention. Systematic ascertainment and early diagnosis enable
diseased individuals to be discovered and threatened individuals to be protected
and are therefore most important features of preventive policy. By their use
the anxieties of persons who wrongly suppose themselves to be diseased may
be allayed and useless treatments may be avoided.
(21) Non-residential Prevention. Preventive action of a non-residential
nature comprises on the one hand measures intended to prevent the propagation of the disease, in particular by the education of the patient, and by
the improvement of housing conditions, enabling the patient to be isolated
(roomier dwellings, provision of beds), and on the other hand measures with
a view to the protection of healthy persons, especially children, against
infection by removing them from unhealthy surroundings (boarding-out in
families under supervision) and by increasing their constitutional resistance
to disease.
¡
(22) Residential Prevention. Residential prevention is inspired by the
same principles: discovery of diseased individuals by observing them in
institutions for isolation and treatment ; protection of threatened individuals,
especially children, by sending them to preventoria, mountain resorts, holiday
homes or the country.
III.
The Share of Insurance in the Campaign against Social Diseases.
(23) Principle of Participation.
The insurance scheme should, in the
interests of the social group whose health it has to preserve, participate in
the campaign against social diseases.
Its participation should be active, i.e. not limited to the grant of subsidies
but including the collaboration of the insurance medical service.
Its participation should secure for persons entitled to insurance benefits
an improvement and extension of treatment and preventive care (unless such
treatment and care are made generally available through a public medical
service).
(24) Form of Participation. The collaboration of insurance schemes with
other bodies and institutions concerned in the campaign against social diseases,
as well as with the medical profession, postulates a common programme of
action with a view to the co-ordination of effort and the avoidance of gaps and
overlapping.
The execution of such a common programme may be achieved either b y a
division of labour between the organisations concerned or by undertaking
functions jointly.
(25) Division of Labour. The programme drawn up by common accord is
carried out separately by the several organisations. The insurance scheme
should undertake the task of helping to remedy the defects of the existing
health services by carrying out all or part of the programme so far as
the insured persons are concerned.
(26) Functions Undertaken Jointly. The programme drawn up by common
accord is likewise executed in common. The execution is entrusted to a special
organisation created for the purpose or to an existing organisation particularly
well fitted to carry out a specific part of the programme.
— 184 —
The insurance scheme however cannot transfer to other organisations duties
assigned to it by law; as regards other functions carried out in common it
ought to retain a direct and active influence proportional to the size of the
insured population and the material aid that it renders to the common causes
DEVELOPMENT OF MEDICAL EQUIPMENT
(27) Development of Existing Equipment. Insurance schemes contribute
indirectly but very substantially to the development of general medical
equipment by granting persons entitled to insurance benefits facilities for
treatment by medical institutions. They can, however, participate directly
in the improvement and the extension of the general equipment, if the technical
efficacy of such equipment and its availability to persons entitled to insurance
benefits are guaranteed.
(28) Creation by Insurance Schemes of their own Equipment. It is the duty
of the public authorities to provide for the creation and maintenance of proper
and sufficient medical equipment. Nevertheless, where an insurance scheme
is faced with a general medical equipment which is inadequate for its special
needs, it should create its own equipment, possessing a qualified medical and
auxiliary staff and the most modern technical appliances.
HEALTH EDUCATION
(29) Insurance schemes should contribute to the diffusion of the practice
of hygienic principles among insured persons and their families (individual
hygiene, dietetic hygiene, etc.)
(30) The success of this action can be largely influenced by the attitute
and the initiative of the responsible authorities of the insurance institutions,
who should be led to appreciate fully the importance of the thorough application of hygienic principles and of the need for a systematic effort to instil
these principles into the understanding and habits of the people.
TRAINING IN SOCIAL MEDICINE
(31) In order to render the curative and preventive action of insurance
schemes as efficacious as possible, it is important to afford, with the participation of insurance institutions, all doctors taking part in insurance services
the opportunity and the means of obtaining systematic instruction in the
functions and methods of social medicine and in the purposes and sphere
of competence of social insurance.
(32) The auxiliary medical staff should be trained in the problems and
application of social medicine, and give evidence of special training for the
functions which they are called upon to perform in the social insurance medical
service.
E C O N O M I C A L A D M I N I S T R A T I O N O F M E D I C A L AND
PHARMACEUTICAL
BENEFITS
At the beginning of 1934 the International Labour Office, in order t o
compare the experience of the several States in the economical administration of benefits in kind under sickness insurance schemes,proceeded
t o consult members of its Social Insurance Correspondence Committee.
— 185
—
In view of the favourable results of this first consultation, the Office
was able t o organise, with the approval of the Governing Body, a
meeting of experts particularly qualified to give an opinion on t h e
question of economical administration of pharmaceutical benefits in
sickness insurance.
This meeting of experts, which was held at the Office on 9, 10 and
11 J u l y 1934, adooted conclusions of considerable importance which
are reproduced below.
Introduction.
Every social service endeavours to employ its limited resources with the
utmost efficiency with respect to its object, which, in the case of sickness
insurance, is the protection of the health of its beneficiaries.
Sickness insurance can only afford its beneficiaries those medical and
pharmaceutical benefits which are necessary; but in so far as these benefits
are necessary, they must be appropriate to that case, and adequate both in
quality and quantity. It is important to secure a maximum of efficacy at a
minimum of cost.
The long experience which now informs the administration of the medical
and pharmaceutical benefits of sickness insurance shows that the ideals of
efficacy and economy are by no means inconsistent. Without trammelling
the practitioner's freedom of treatment and prescription, or overlooking the
legitimate claims of the patient, the strictest economy compatible with efficacy
can and should be observed, in the interest of the insured community as a whole.
By way of general indication, attention should be drawn to the interest
which an insurance scheme has in preventing an illness rather than in curing
it, and emphasis should be laid on the importance of systematic prevention,
which may, by itself, occasion economies in all directions.
With respect to the economic administration of pharmaceutical benefit,
the following general rules, drawn from the concordant practice of several
countries, appear to be calculated to avoid any increase in the cost of medicines
which is not justified by an increase in therapeutic effect.
In economical prescribing it is sought to combine therapeutic efficacy with
the strictest economy, by the use of the medicines which, in the particular
case, are likely to achieve the most complete and most rapid restoration of
health and capacity for work at a minimum cost.
I.
Principles and Rules for Economical Prescribing.
1. Prescriptions not to be issued unless necessary. No prescription of
medicine should be issued unless it is necessary. Such a prescription can often
be effectively replaced by hygienic, physical or dietética! measures, which the
patient can apply himself, in accordance with the practitioner's directions.
2. All necessary medicines to be prescribed. Any medicine of recognised
therapeutical value, irrespective of price, should be available for prescribing
in so far as, in the particular case, it is necessary for the restoration of health
and capacity for work.
In countries where a limitative list of drugs is drawn up for the purpose of
sickness insurance, this list should be revised from time to time in order to
take account of advances in pharmacology.
Luxury and toilet preparations and secret remedies should not be prescribed.
3. The writing of prescriptions. Medicines which are necessary in the particular case should be prescribed with a view to securing a maximum of efficacy
and economy.
The practitioner may well use commonly accepted standard formulae if
they are suitable in the particular case.
(a) Efficacy should be sought by the radical treatment of the illness:
medicines for symptomatic treatment should only be prescribed in case of
necessity; by judiciously selecting and proportioning the ingredients; and
— 186 —
by making the prescription as simple as possible, and avoiding the admixture
of substances where it does not reinforce the therapeutic effect.
(b) Economy should be sought by attention to the form in which the
medicine is to be dispensed ; by attention to the quantity in which the medicine
is ordered, regard being had to the probable development and duration of
the illness, to the quantity already consumed, and to the period over which the
medicine retains its properties ; by strictly limiting the use of substances which
are merely colouring or flavouring agents; and by attention to the cost of
compounding and dispensing the prescription.
(c) Where a choice of medicines of equal efficacy exists, preference should
be given to the less expensive medicine.
The practitioner should furnish the patient or his household with proper
instructions for the use of the medicine.
4. Preparations of particular make and those sold under trade marks.
(a) Preparations of particular make should only be ordered if no substitutes
of equal therapeutical value exist or if they cost no more than substitutes
dispensed from the practitioner's prescription.
[b) Preparations sold under trade mark should, where possible, be prescribed under their scientific designation.
5. Repetition of prescriptions. Before ordering a further supply of medicine,
the practitioner should satisfy himself that a further prescription is necessary
and that the consumption of the previous supply has proceeded at the rate
indicated by him.
6. Decoctions and infusions. In accordance with the practitioner's directions,
certain decoctions, teas and infusions in current use may be prepared by the
patient himself or his household.
7. Wet packs, gargles and dressing. Medicaments for the purposes of wet
packs, of gargles and of dressings should, in case of repeated applications,
be prescribed in the form of solids or concentrated solutions.
II.
Drafting and Application of Guiding Principles for Economical Prescribing.
8. Drafting of guiding principles. The establishment of guiding principles
or recommendations adapted to each national scheme and inspired by the
conceptions set forth above for economical prescribing is advisable in the
interest both of medical practitioners and of insurance institutions ; it should
be undertaken either on the initiative of national medical associations or with
the collaboration of bodies representative of medical practitioners and associations of insurance institutions, or, in the absence of their initiative, by
national committees appointed under Government auspices, which should
include delegates of bodies representative of medical practitioners and those of
associations of insurance institutions.
9. Purpose of guiding principles. Without restricting the practitioner's
rights to prescribe, and the patient's right to receive, proper and sufficient
medicines, the guiding principles should serve to prevent excessive or needlessly
expensive prescribing by formulating rules which experience has shown to be
calculated to prevent any increase in the cost of medicines not justified by an
increase in therapeutic effect.
These principles should also indicate, without making recommendations
as to treatment, all possibilities of economy compatible with efficacy which
offer themselves within the terms of the general regulations governing the
practice of pharmacy and the special regulations and arrangements relating
to pharmaceutical benefit under sickness insurance schemes.
In countries where standard formulae are in current use, these formulae
should be mentioned in the guiding principles.
10. Pocket aids to economical prescribing. In several countries pocket-books
have been issued which show, for the different medicines, the most economical
composition, dosage, form and method of dispensing.
It is desirable that these pocket-books should be widely used in order that
practitioners should have at their disposal detailed information enabling them
— 187 —
to compare the prices of remedies, according to the ingredients of which they
are compounded, and to the form in which they are prepared (pills, solutions,
tablets, cachets).
These pocket-books, which have been found most useful by practitioners.
specify certain medicines as being economical, without, however, implying
that those not mentioned are uneconomical or are never to be prescribed.
11. Methods calculated to facilitate efficacious but economical medical action.
(a) Teaching of medical students. It is necessary that medical students
should receive instruction which, inspired by the conceptions set forth above,
will not only render the future practitioner capable of treating the illness, but
also, by a well-devised theoretical and practical training, make him understand
the value of treating and prescribing effectively and economically, and show
him the way to do so.
(b) Post-graduate courses. It is likewise necessary to organise (at the
instance either of medical faculties and schools, or of insurance institutions,
or of medical associations, or else by these different parties concerned acting
in concert) post-graduate instruction for practitioners in which will be explained
to them in particular the guiding principles which relate to these conceptions.
Identical directions should be given to medical advisers of insurance funds,
medical referees, etc.
(c) Educational propaganda. Educational propaganda should be carried
on among the insured population in order to demonstrate the uselessness and
disadvantages of demanding medical prescriptions which are superfluous,
expensive and unjustified, but on the contrary, to induce them to put their
trust in medical directions of a hygienic or dietetical, etc., nature, which are
necessary and often sufficient by themselves, and to persuade them that the
most expensive treatments are not necessarily the most efficacious.
III. Control of Excessive Prescribing.
12. Purpose of control. In order to secure compliance with guiding
principles for economical prescribing, and thereby save the insured community
needless expenditure, valuable service may be rendered by organising a control
based on systematic observation of the general trend of insurance prescribing.
13. Statistical returns. Such systematic observation involves the compilation of periodical returns, relating to all prescriptions issued by the insurance
practitioners in a specified area or contracting with a specified insurance
institution and showing:
(o) The average number of prescriptions per insured person and per person
prescribed for;
(b) The average cost per insured person, per person prescribed for and per
prescription.
The prudent and discerning comparison of these general averages with
the individual averages of practitioners shows where there is ground for proceeding to an investigation in particular cases.
14. Investigation in particular cases. An investigation of the prescribing
of a particular practitioner may be undertaken, within the framework of the
national insurance scheme, on the initiative of the representative medical body,
the insurance institution, or the administrative department responsible for
the supervision of the latter. The investigation, which is carried out in every
case by a doctor, acting in consultation with the representative medical body
concerned, relates to abuses in prescribing, every facility being afforded to
the practitioner to furnish an explanation.
Where the finding of the investigation is that excessive prescribing has
repeatedly occurred, the practitioner, who may be held financially liable for
the excess of expenditure thereby incurred, should be entitled to require that
the charges alleged against him shall be subjected to a second investigation.
APPENDIX III
Principal Stages in 'he Development of Compulsory Social Insurance
Legislation
In order to illustrate the wide scope and the growth of compulsory
social insurance throughout the world, it has been thought desirable to
indicate for each country the principal stages in the introduction and
extension of legislation on compulsory industrial accident insurance or
workmen's compensation, compulsory sickness and maternity insurance,
and compulsory invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance.
So far as the information available allows, the number of persons insured
under each scheme is also given, on the basis of the most recent statistics
received by the Office.
The list below shows that there are at present :
130 compulsory accident insurance or workmen's compensation
schemes in 54 countries;
45 compulsory sickness and maternity insurance schemes in
31 countries;
75 compulsory invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance
schemes in 30 countries.
According to the statistics received by the Office, compulsory sickness
and maternity insurance covers about 90 million persons, and compulsory
invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance over 100 million
workers. When the new United States legislation comes into operation
(on 1 January 1937), the number of persons insured against old age will
t e over 125 million.
The legislation on industrial accident insurance or workmen's compensation is much wider in scope than that on sickness insurance or invalidity, old-age and widows' and orphans' insurance; but it is impossible
to give a general estimate of the number of workers covered, for in many
countries such statistics are not compiled, since the premiums or contributions are fixed, not according to the number of workers employed,
but according to the total wage-bill of the undertakings covered.
- It may be added that the list is by no means complete. For instance,
it mentions only incidentally for certain countries the legislation on
compulsory insurance for railway workers, although everywhere these
workers are covered by special and very complex schemes, often organised
by the railway companies. No mention is made of insurance legislation
for the officials of the State, provinces, departments, or communes, who
are also covered by special schemes in nearly every country.
If all the general and special schemes of compulsory insurance and
workmen's compensation and the non-contributory pension schemes
could be taken into account, it would be seen that there are at present
some 400 laws for the protection of the workers against the risks of
industrial accidents, sickness, maternity, invalidity, old age, and death.
— 189 —
§ 1. — Workmen's Compensation and Industrial Accident Insurance
Principal stages in the development
oí national legislation
ARGENTINA
1915.
1934.
Accident compensation for persons earning
under 3,000 pesos a year, and employed in
industrial undertakings where other than
human power is used, or in assimilated
undertakings.
Establishment of a special compensation
scheme for persons employed in commerce.
AUSTRALIA
Commonwealth
1911.
1912.
1930.
Accident compensation for seamen.
Accident compensation for persons in the
service of the Commonwealth.
Increase of benefits and introduction of medical benefit.
New South Wales
1910.
1916.
1926.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, and construction.
Extension of compensation scheme to all
employed persons.
Compulsory accident insurance for employed
persons; establishment of a Compensation
Commission. Introduction of medical
benefit.
Queensland
1905.
1916.
Accident compensation for employed persons.
Compulsory accident insurance for employed
persons.
South Australia
1900.
1911.
1925.
1932.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, and construction.
Extension of compensation scheme to all nonagricultural workers, except office workers
and domestic servants.
Compulsory accident insurance for employed
persons.
Consolidation of legislation.
Insured persons
Year
Number
— 190 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Insured persons
Year
Number
Tasmania
1911.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, and construction.
Extension of compensation scheme to all employed persons.
Consolidation of legislation and increase of
benefits.
Compulsory accident insurance. Introduction of medical benefit.
1919.
1927.
1934.
Victoria
1914- Compulsory accident insurance for employed
1915.
persons.
1929. Consolidation of legislation.
Western Australia
1902.
1912.
1924.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, and construction.
Extension of compensation scheme to all employed persons. Introduction of medical
benefit.
Compulsory accident insurance for employed
persons.
The Northern Territory
1920- Accident compensation for employed per1923.
sons.
1931. Compulsory accident insurance for employed
persons. Introduction of medical benefit.
1934. Abrogation of medical benefit.
AUSTRIA
(a)
insurance for persons employed in industry and
commerce
1888. Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industry and commerce.
1926. Establishment of a special scheme of insurance for salaried employees.
1925. Reform of accident insurance, and extension
of compulsory insurance to all industrial,
commercial, etc., undertakings
(b)
1934
Workers
395,000
Salaried
employees
198,000
1933
700,000
1933
Insurance for agricultural workers
1928.
Establishment of compulsory insurance for
agricultural workers.
— 191 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Insured persons
Year
Number
BELGIUM
1903.
1905.
1921
and
1926.
1929.
1930.
Industrial accident compensation for persons
employed in industry, commerce, and agriculture, and in undertakings where other
than human or animal power is used, or
where not less than three workers (agriculture, commerce) or five workers (industry)
are generally employed.
Bringing into operation of the Accident Compensation Act.
Adjustment of accident compensation legislation to economic changes since the war.
Extension of accident compensation scheme
to seamen.
Widening of scope of accident compensation
scheme and increase of benefits provided.
Improvement of scheme of allowances to
pensioners to compensate for depreciation
of currency.
1933
2,200,000
BOLIVIA
1924.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in undertakings with a capital of over
20,000 bolivianos.
BRAZIL
1919.
1934.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in industry, construction, transport, and
agricultural undertakings where other than
human or animal power is used.
Extension of compensation scheme to all employed persons.
BULGARIA
1924.
Compulsory accident insurance for employed 1933-1934
persons.
251,268
CANADA
Alberta
1908.
1918.
1922.
1924.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, and construction.
Compulsory accident insurance (with a public
fund) for persons employed in manufacturing industry, mines, transport, and construction.
Consolidation of legislation.
Improvement of scheme of benefits.
1933
57,000
— 192 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
British Columbia
1902. Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, and construction.
1916. Compulsory accident insurance (with a public
fund) for persons employed in manufacturing industry, mines, transport, and construction.
1924. Consolidation of legislation.
Insured persons
Year
Number
1933
110,000
1933
45,000
Manitoba
1910.
1916.
1920.
Accident compensation for persons in nonagricultural employment.
Establishment of a guarantee fund operating
in case of insolvency of the person liable.
Compulsory accident insurance (with a public
fund) for persons employed in manufacturing industry, mines, transport, and construction.
New Brunswick
1918.
1932.
Compulsory accident insurance (with a public
fund) for persons employed in manufacturing industry, transport, commerce, mines,
and construction (excluding office employees).
Consolidation of legislation; extension of
accident insurance to all office employees
in above undertakings.
Nova Scotia
1910.
1915.
1923.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, and construction.
Compulsory accident insurance (with a public
fund) for persons employed in manufacturing industry, mines, transport, and construction (excluding office employees).
Consolidation of legislation; extension of
accident insurance to all office employees
in above undertakings.
Ontario
1914.
1917.
1927.
Compulsory accident insurance (with a public
fund) for persons employed in manufacturing industry, mines, transport, and construction. Exemption from the obligation
to insure for certain large undertakings,
which are merely liable to pay compensation.
Extension of compensation to cover medical
benefits.
Consolidation of legislation.
— 193 —
Principal stages in the development
oí national legislation
I nsured persons
Year
Number
Quebec
1909. Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, transport, and construction.
1928. Compulsory accident insurance. Establishment of a Compensation Commission;
improvement of scheme of benefits.
1931. Compulsory accident insurance (with a public
fund) for persons employed in manufacturing industry, mines, transport, and construction. Exemption from the obligation
to insure for certain undertakings, which
are merely liable to pay compensation.
Saskatchewan
1911.
1929.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, and construction.
Compulsory accident insurance (with a public
fund) of persons employed in manufacturing industry, mines, transport, and construction.
Yukon Territory
1917.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in manufacturing industry, mines, transport, and construction.
CHILE
1916.
1924.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in industry, construction, transport, and
agricultural undertakings where other than
human power is used, provided that the
undertaking employs more than ten
persons.
Extension of compensation scheme to all
employed persons.
COLOMBIA
1915.
Accident compensation for employed persons
earning less than 3 pesos a day and engaged
in the undertakings, specified in the Act
(mines, quarries, construction, railways,
etc.) with a capital of over 1,000 gold pesos.
1925.
Accident compensation for persons employed .
in certain undertakings specified in the
Act (factories, transport, mines, etc.) and
agricultural undertakings employing not
less than five workers, in which other than
human power is used.
COSTA RICA
13
— 194 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Insured persons
Year
Number
CUBA
1916.
1933.
Establishment of an accident insurance
scheme for persons employed in industry
and agriculture.
Widening of scope of accident compensation
to include persons employed in commerce.
. Increase in the level of benefits provided.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
1888.
1900.
1907.
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industry and commerce, in
Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia.
Compulsory accident insurance for domestic
servants and seasonal agricultural workers
in Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia.
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industry and commerce in
Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia.
1934
1,800,000
DENMARK
1898.
1900.
1905.
1908.
1916.
Accident compensation for manual workers
employed in industry and undertakings
using mechanical power.
Voluntary accident insurance for fishermen.
Compulsory accident insurance for seamen.
Compulsory accident insurance for agricultural workers (excluding small farmers).
Compulsory accident insurance for all persons 1928-1931
employed in all branches of economic activity, as well as domestic servants).
576,400
(annual
average)
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
1932.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in undertakings employing not less than
three workers, and agricultural undertakings employing not less than five
workers.
ECUADOR
1921.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in undertakings where other than human
motive power is used, and in quarries, construction, etc.
ESTONIA
1912.
1934.
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industry.
Extension of insurance scheme to seamen.
1933
49,088
— 195 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
FINLAND
1895.
1918.
Compulsory accident insurance for workers
in industry.
Extension of compulsory accident insurance
to all classes of workers, except domestic
servants, home workers, and persons employed in certain small industrial and agricultural undertakings.
Insured persons
Year
Number
1931
501,456
1933
10,310,000
FRANCE
1898,
1906.
1920.
1922.
1926.
1930.
Compensation for accidents occurring in
industrial undertakings.
Extension of compensation scheme to persons
employed in commercial undertakings.
Adaptation of accident compensation legislation to economic changes since the war;
raising of maximum basic wage.
Extension of accident compensation to agricultural undertakings; grant to pensioners
of allowances to compensate for depreciation of the currency.
Adaptation of compensation scheme to
economic changes since 1920; raising of
maximum basic wage.
Increase in scale of allowances granted to
pensioners to compensate for depreciation
of currency.
GERMANY
1884.
1886.
1887.
1900.
1925.
1928.
Compulsory accident insurance for workers
and salaried employees in industrial undertakings.
Extension of insurance to persons employed
in agricultural and forestry undertakings.
Extension of insurance to seamen and to
persons employed in constructional undertakings.
Consolidation of legislation.
Improvement of benefits in kind.
Extension of insurance to further groups of
undertakings (hospitals, theatres, restaurants, etc.).
GREAT BRITAIN
1897.
1900.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, and construction.
Extension of compensation scheme to persons
employed in agriculture.
1933
22,000,000
— 196 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
1906.
1934.
Insured ¡Sersons
Year
Number
Extension of compensation scheme to all
employed persons.
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in the coal mining industry.
GREECE
1907.
1914.
1934.
Establishment of a pension fund for disabled
seamen, to regulate compensation for
accidents in maritime navigation.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in industrial undertakings, construction,
transport by water, loading, unloading, or
warehousing, etc.
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industrial and commercial
undertakings and certain agricultural
undertakings.
GUATEMALA
1906.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in transport undertakings.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in undertakings employing more than 12
workers.
HUNGARY
(a) Insurance for agricultural workers
1900. Compulsory insurance for domestic servants
and seasonal agricultural workers, and
for workers employed on agricultural
machinery.
Insurance for persons employed in industry and
commerce.
1907. Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industrial and commercial
undertakings.
1927. Reform of compulsory insurance for workers
in industrial and commercial undertakings.
1933
620,000
1933
780,000
(b)
INDIA
1923.
1933.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories employing not less than 20
persons, mines, railways, construction, and
shipping marine.
Extension of compensation scheme to persons
employed in factories employing 10 persons,
workshops employing 50 persons, plantations employing 25 persons, etc.
— 197 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
IRISH FREE STATE
1897.
1900.
1906.
Insured persons
Year
Number
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, and construction.
Extension of compensation scheme to persons
employed in agriculture.
Extension of compensation scheme to all
employed persons.
ICELAND
1903.
1909.
1917.
1925.
Compulsory accident insurance for fishermen
employed on board decked ships.
Extension of compulsory insurance to the
crews of all Icelandic vessels (except twooared boats).
Accident compensation for employed persons
in general.
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industry and commerce
(except persons employed in certain small
undertakings).
ITALY
(a)
Insurance for persons employed in industry and
commerce
1898. Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industry and commerce.
1933. Administrative unification of insurance.
(b) Insurance for persons employed in agriculture
1917. Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in agriculture.
1934
2,853,000
1933
7,500,000
1933
4,000,000
JAPAN
1905.
1911.
1923.
Accident compensation for miners.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in dangerous or unhealthy undertakings or
in factories regularly employing more than
ten persons.
Amendment of definition of the risk covered,
so as to ensure the right to compensation
in all cases of accident occurring at the
workplace.
Improvement of scheme of benefits.
19261929.
1931. Extension of scope of industrial accident compensation scheme to workers in transport,
construction, etc. Establishment of compulsory insurance for certain groups of
undertakings.
— 198 —
' .
' '
1912.
1927.
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
LATVIA
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industry.
Extension of compulsory insurance to all employed persons.
Insured persons
Year
Number
1933
103,884 1
1933
35,573
(persons
employed
in industry only)
1933
1,182,873
1933
170,750
LITHUANIA
1903.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in industry.
LUXEMBURG
1902.
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industry.
1909. Extension of insurance to persons employed
in agriculture.
1920- Adaptation of insurance benefits to economic
1923
changes since the war; grant of special
allowances to compensate for depreciation
of currency.
1925. Codification of social insurance, making accident insurance compulsory for all industrial, agricultural, and forestry undertakings (except commercial undertakings).
MEXICO
1931.
Federal legislation concerning accident compensation for employed persons.
NETHERLANDS
(a)
Insurance for persons employed in commerce and
industry
1901. Compulsory accident insurance for employed
persons.
1921. Improvement of scheme of benefits.
(b) Accident insurance in agriculture
1922. Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in agriculture.
(c) Accident insurance for seamen
1919. Compulsory accident insurance for seamen.
NEW ZEALAND
1900.
1902.
1922.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in industry and commerce.
Extension of scheme to persons employed in
agriculture.
Consolidation of legislation.
Excluding persons employed in agriculture and public undertakings.
— 199 —
„
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Insured persons
Year
Number
NICARAGUA
1930.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in certain undertakings (mines, quarries,
construction, railways, factories, etc.) employing more than 15 workers, and having a
capital of over 25,000 córdobas.
NORWAY
(a) Insurance for employed persons in general
1894. Compulsory insurance for persons employed
in industrial undertakings where mechanical (other than human or animal) power
is used, and persons employed in factories,
undertakings engaged in loading or unloading ships, etc.
1915. Reform of accident insurance ; amendment of
benefit scheme.
1918. Improvement of benefit scheme.
Insurance for seamen and workers assimilated to
them
1908. Compulsory accident insurance for all fishermen, whalers, sealers, etc., seamen, and
persons employed in small-scale navigation.
1911. Compulsory accident insurance for the crews
of all Norwegian vessels of over 50 tons
gross.
1920. Improvement of scheme of benefits.
1931
169,335
1932
132,669
(b)
PALESTINE
1926.
Accident compensation for manual workers
employed in the principal industrial and
transport undertakings.
PANAMA
1916.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in certain undertakings, mines, salt works,
quarries, factories, metal-working undertakings, and establishments where explosives or inflammable or poisonous products,
etc., are manufactured.
PARAGUAY
1927.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in certain industrial undertakings specified
in the Act (mines, quarries, transport, etc.)
and in agricultural undertakings where
more than six workers are employed.
— 200 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Insured persons
Year
Number
PERU
1911.
Accident compensation for employed persons
earning under 120 pounds a year, persons
employed in certain groups of undertakings
(electricity, shipbuilding, transport), agricultural undertakings, and mines employing more than 35 workers.
POLAND
1883- Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industrial and agricultural
1885,
undertakings in the western provinces and
Upper Silesia.
Compulsory
accident insurance for persons
1888.
employed in industrial undertakings in the
southern provinces.
1924. Extension to whole country of accident
insurance for persons employed in
industrial and commercial undertakings
and to workers employed in agricultural
undertakings of more than 30 hectares.
1934
3,300,000
PORTUGAL
1913.
1919.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in factories, mines, railways, construction,
and shipping.
Extension of compensation scheme to all
employed persons.
RUMANIA
1912.
1920.
1921.
1924.
1933.
Compulsory accident insurance for handicraftsmen and persons employed in
industry.
Adaptation of insurance to new economic
conditions ; increase of benefits with a view
to taking account of depreciation of
currency.
Extension of insurance to Bessarabia.
Increase of contributions, and new increases
of benefits to compensate for depreciation
of currency.
Unification and co-ordination of insurance
scheme for the whole country. Extension
of compulsory insurance to persons
employed in commercial undertakings.
1933
600,000
— 201 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Year
Insured persons
Number
SALVADOR
1911.
1916.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in certain undertakings (mines, transport,
electricity, etc.)
Extension of scheme to certain other
industries (metal-working, loading and
unloading, etc.).
SPAIN
1922.
1931.
1932.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in transport, construction, etc., and in
agricultural undertakings employing more
than six workers.
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in agriculture.
Compulsory accident insurance for workers
and salaried employees employed in industry and commerce.
SWEDEN
1901.
1916.
Accident compensation for workers in
industry.
Compulsory accident insurance for employed
persons in general.
SWITZERLAND
1911.
Compulsory insurance against industrial and
non-industrial accidents for workers and
salaried employees in industry, handicrafts,
transport, and shipping.
UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA
1914.
1934.
Industrial accident compensation for persons
employed in industry and commerce.
Compulsory insurance for employed persons,
with the exception of those employed in
agricultural undertakings. Improvement
of scheme of benefits.
UNITED STATES
Federal Legislation
1908.
1927.
Accident compensation for civilian workers
employed by the Federal Government.
Compulsory accident insurance for longshoremen and harbour workers.
1931
1,576,262
— 202 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Year
Insured persons
Number
State legislation
(a)
Compulsory insurance laws
1911.
1912.
1913.
1914.
1915.
1916.
1917.
1918.
1919.
1920.
1925.
1928.
1929.
1935.
(b)
California, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts,
Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey,
Ohio, Washington, Wisconsin.
Arizona, Michigan, Rhode Island.
Connecticut, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska,
New York, Oregon, Texas, West Virginia.
Louisiana, Maryland.
Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine,
Montana, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Wyoming.
Kentucky, Porto Rico.
South Dakota, Delaware, Idaho, New Mexico,
Utah.
Virginia.
North Dakota, Tennessee.
Georgia.
Missouri.
Philippine Islands, District of Columbia.
North Carolina.
Florida.
Compensation laws
1919.
Alabama.
URUGUAY
1920.
1922.
1932.
1933.
1934.
Accident compensation for persons employed
in undertakings where the risk of accident
is specially high.
Extension of accident compensation to persons employed by public works contractors.
Extension of accident compensation to agricultural workers.
Extension of accident compensation to
domestic workers.
Establishment of compulsory accident insurance.
U.S.S.R.
1922.
1933.
Compulsory accident insurance for employed
persons.
Transfer of insurance administration to the
trade unions.
1934
23,513,600
— 203 —
Principal stages in the development
ol nationallegislation
•
Insured persona
Year
Number
VENEZUELA
1928.
Accident compensation for employed persons
earning under 600 bolivars a month, excluding persons employed in undertakings
employing less than 25 workers and agricultural and forestry undertakings.
•
YUGOSLAVIA
1887.
1907.
1922.
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industry in Dalmatia and
Slovenia.
Compulsory accident insurance for persons
employed in industry in Croatia and
Slavonia.
Extension and unification throughout the
country of compulsory accident insurance
for persons employed in industrial and
commercial undertakings.
1934
680,000
§ 2 . — Compulsory Sickness and Maternity Insurance
ARGENTINA
1934.
Compulsory maternity insurance for women
employed in industry and commerce.
AUSTRIA
(a)
Insurance for persons employed in industry and
commerce
1854. Compulsory sickness insurance for miners.
1888. Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry and commerce.
1926. Establishment of a special scheme of compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for salaried employees.
1935. Reform of sickness insurance, affecting the
insurance of miners, workers and salaried
employees.
(b) Insurance for persons employed in agriculture
1928. Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in agriculture.
1934
Miners and
workers :
744,000
Salaried
employees :
243,000
1933
275,000
— 204 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Year
Insured persons
Number
BELGIUM
1844.
1931.
Establishment of an Assistance and Welfare
Fund for seamen sailing under the Belgian
flag.
Promulgation of revised rules for the Assistanee and Welfare Fund.
1933
2,953
1933
211,000
BRAZIL
1931.
1932.
1933.
1934.
1934.
1934.
1934.
Compulsory sickness insurance (benefits in
kind) for persons employed in public
utility undertakings.
Extension of insurance to miners.
Compulsory sickness insurance (benefits in
kind) for seamen and fishermen.
Compulsory maternity insurance and compulsory sickness insurance (benefits in
kind) in certain districts, for persons employed in commerce.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for the staffs of banks.
Compulsory sickness insurance (cash benefits)
for workers in coffee warehouses.
Compulsory sickness insurance (cash benefits)
for stevedores.
BULGARIA
1924.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance 1933-1934
for employed persons.
251,268
CANADA
Alberta
1935.
Sickness insurance (benefits in kind) for the
working population; the question of compulsion to be decided by each district.
CHILE
1924.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for employed persons.
CUBA
1934.
1935.
Compulsory maternity insurance for women
employed in industry and commerce.
Widening of scope of insurance. Increase of
rates of benefit insured.
1933
500,000
— 205 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Insured persons
Year
Number
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
1888.
1907.
1920.
1924.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry and commerce in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry and
commerce in Slovakia and Carpathian
Ruthenia.
Extension of compulsory sickness and maternity insurance to persons employed in
agriculture.
Legislative and administrative unification of
compulsory sickness and maternity insurance for employed persons.
1934
2,900,000
1933
40,173
1933
274,119
1933
195,700
1933
7,040,000
ESTONIA
1912.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insuranee for persons employed in industry.
FRANCE
(a)
Insurance for miners
1894.
1930.
1935.
(b)
Insurance for seamen
1931.
(c)
Compulsory sickness insurance for persons
employed in mines.
Reform of compulsory insurance for persons
employed in mines.
Amendment of miners' sickness insurance
scheme in order to balance the budgets of
the funds: increase of financial resources
and possible decrease of benefits.
Compulsory sickness (non-occupational risks)
and maternity insurance for persons employed at sea.
Insurance for workers in general
1928.
1930.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance.
Bringing into operation of compulsory sickness and maternity insurance for employed
persons, after amendments relating essentially to the financial system and the
introduction of separate provisions for
agricultural workers.
GERMANY
1883.
1886,
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry and commerce.
Extension of insurance to persons employed
in agricultural and forestry undertakings.
— 206 —
1911.
1914.
1923.
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Bringing into operation of Social Insurance
Code. Unification of insurance authorities and of procedure and jurisdiction in
the matter of insurance.
Extension of maternity benefits.
Extension of scope of insurance to salaried
employees in social utility undertakings
(education, training, social assistance) and
to home workers (handicraftsmen). Authorisation given to sickness funds to
utilise certain resources for prevention of
sickness in individual cases and in general.
Insured persons
Year
Number
1933
16,800,000
1933
' 17,707,000
1933
870,000
1933
474,000
1933
143,000
1933
840,000
1933
6,250,000
1933
42,000
GREAT BRITAIN
1911.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for employed persons.
GREECE
1926.
1934.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in tobacco manufacture.
Compulsory
sickness and
¡ompuisory sicKness
ana maternity insurance for employed persons, except those
employed in agriculture.
HUNGARY
1907.
1927.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry and commerce.
Reform of compulsory sickness and maternity
insurance for persons employed in industry
and commerce; extension of insurance to
domestic servants.
IRISH FREE STATE
1911.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
(cash benefits) for employed persons.
ITALY
1888.
1910.
1927.
1929.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry and commerce in former Austrian provinces.
Compulsory maternity insurance for women
employed in industry and commerce.
Compulsory tuberculosis insurance for all
employed persons.
Compulsory sickness insurance for seamen
and airmen.
— 207 —
Principal stages in the development
ol national legislation
1929. Sickness insurance on the basis of collective
agreements for persons employed in commerce.
1930. Sickness insurance on the basis of collective
agreements for persons employed in industry.
1930. Sickness insurance on the basis of collective
agreements for persons employed in agriculture.
Insured persons
Year
Number
1934
252,000
1933
1,320,000
1935
2,667,000
1934
165,000
1934
42,096
1933
48,000
JAPAN
1922. Introduction of compulsory sickness and maternity insurance for persons employed in
mines and factories regularly employing
not less than ten workers.
1926. Bringing into operation of the obligation to
insure.
1934. Extension of compulsory insurance to persons
employed in factories regularly employing
not less than five workers.
LATVIA
1912.
1922.
1930.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry.
Extension of sickness and maternity insurance to other groups of employed persons,
except persons employed in agriculture.
Extension of compulsory sickness insurance
to seamen.
LITHUANIA
1926.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry and commerce.
LUXEMBURG
1901.
1925.
1933.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry.
Codification of social insurance scheme, in
particular to cover sickness risk for persons
employed in commerce and industry.
Improvement of scheme of maternity benefits
NETHERLANDS
1913.
1929.
Adoption of an Act on compulsory sickness
insurance for employed persons, providing
for grant of cash benefit only.
Amendment and bringing into operation of
above Act.
— 208 —
•• •'
1911.
1935.
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
NORWAY
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for all employed persons whose income does
not exceed a certain limit.
Extension of compulsory insurance to fishermen working on their own account.
Insured persons
Year
Number
1933
568,209
1934
1,600,000
1933
600,000
1933
591,000
POLAND
1889.
Compulsory sickness insurance for employed
persons in western provinces and Upper
Silesia.
1920. . Extension to whole territory of compulsory
sickness insurance for persons employed in
industrial and commercial undertakings.
RUMANIA
1912.
1920.
1921.
1924.
1933.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for handicraftsmen and persons employed
in industry.
Adaptation of insurance to new economic conditions; increase of benefits in order to
compensate for depreciation of currency.
Extension of insurance to Bessarabia.
Increase of contributions and new increase of
benefits, to compensate for depreciation of
currency.
Unification and co-ordination of social insuranee scheme for the whole country. Extension of compulsary insurance to persons
employed in commerce.
SPAIN
1929.
Compulsory maternity insurance for employed women.
SWITZERLAND
Confederation
1911. Adoption of legislation on voluntary sickness
insurance, empowering cantonal authorities. to introduce compulsory sickness
insurance laws.
Cantons which have introduced compulsory sickness
insurance for persons whose annual income or
capital does not exceed a specified limit :
1914. Basle (Town).
1914. St. Gallen.
1916. Appenzell (Outer Rhodes).
1920. Appenzell (Inner Rhodes).
1926. Thurgau. '
— 209 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Cantons which have delegated to the communes the
right to introduce compulsory sickness insurance:
Berne
Grisons
Lucerne
Schaffhausen
Schwyz
Solothurn
Ticino
Year
Insured persons
Number
Uri
Valais
Zurich
U.S.S.B.
1922.
1933.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for employed persons.
Transfer of insurance administration to the
trade unions.
1934
23,513,600
1934
680,000
YUGOSLAVIA
1888.
1907.
1909.
1922.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry and commerce in Dalmatia and Slovenia.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry and commerce in Croatia and Slavonia.
Compulsory sickness and maternity insurance
for persons employed in industry and commerce in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Extension and unification of compulsory sickness and maternity insurance for persons
employed in industry and commerce, for
the whole country.
§ 3. — Compulsory Invalidity, Old-Age and Widows'
and Orphans' Insurance
ARGENTINA
1919.
1921.
1923.
1935.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for workers employed on railways.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for staffs of private undertakings
of public utility.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for bank staffs.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for journalists and persons employed in the printing industry.
1933
130,000
1933
37,700
1932
9,200
14
— 210 —
.>i
(a)
,
Principal stages in the development .
of .national legislation
AUSTRIA
Year
Insured persons
Number
Insurance for miners
1854.
1920.
1925.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for miners.
Reform of the benefit scheme.
Reform of insurance administration.
1933
13,000
1934
198,000
1934
600,000
1933
280,000
1933
2,953
(b) Insurance for salaried employees
1907.
1926.
1935.
(c)
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for salaried employees.
Reform of insurance for salaried employees.
Improvement of benefit scheme.
Reform of the financial system and benefits,
with a view to rendering insurance charges
less onerous and securing financial equilibrium.
Insurance for workers in industry and commerce
1926.
1935.
(d)
Promulgation of an Act establishing compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for workers in industry and commerce. Only the transitional provisions
of this Act concerning old-age assistance
are in operation
Amendment of conditions of award ; reduction of benefits.
Insurance for agricultural workers
1928.
Promulgation of an Act establishing compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors' insurance for agricultural workers. Only the
transitional provisions of this Act concerning old-age assistance are in operation.
BELGIUM
(a)
Insurance for seamen
1844.
1931.
(b)
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance with the Assistance and Welfare
Fund for seamen sailing under the Belgian
flag.
Application of preliminary measures for the
organisation of social insurance for seamen
of all ratings in the mercantile marine.
Insurance for miners
1911.
1914.
1920.
Compulsory old-age insurance for miners.
Widening of scope of insurance.
Extension of insurance to cover risk of death ;
improvement of benefit scheme.
— 211 —
1924.
1930.
1935.
(c)
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Extension of insurance to cover risk of invalidity; improvement of benefit scheme.
Reform of scheme.
Increase of contributions to Miners' Insurance
Fund; restriction of coincident rights, and
reduction of certain benefit rates.
Insured persons
Year
Number
1933
180,645
1933
1,772,760
1933
approx.
235,000
1933
211,000
Insurance for workers
1924;
1927.
1928.
1929.
1930.
1932.
1933.
1934.
(d)
Compulsory old-age and survivors' insurance
for workers.
Increase of benefits provided for beneficiaries
under the transitional scheme.
Do.
Do.
Reform and unification of workers' old-age
and survivors' insurances legislation.
Amendment, with the object of avoiding
certain abuses, of the transitional provisions in old-age and survivors' insurance.
Reduction of cost of benefits provided for
insured persons under the transitional
scheme, in the form of stricter conditions
of award and reduced basic rates.
New regulation, with the object of decreasing
the cost of insurance, of conditions of award
of benefits under the transitional scheme.
Insurance for salaried employees
1925.
1930.
1933.
Compulsory old-age, invalidity, and survivors'
insurance for salaried employees.
Amendment of legislation, in order to facilitäte its application.
Do.
BOLIVIA
1926.
Invalidity, old-age, and survivors' insurance
for persons employed in banks.
BRAZIL
(a)
Insurance for persons employed in public utility
undertakings and workers in mines
1923.
1926.
1931.
1932.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for workers employed on railways.
Extension of insurance to persons employed
in undertakings operating port services.
Reorganisation and extension of insurance to
all persons employed in public utility undertakings.
Extension of insurance to miners.
— 212 —
(b)
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Other groups of workers
1933.
Insured persons
Year
Number
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for seamen and fishermen.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for persons employed in commerce.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for the staffs of banks.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for workers in coffee warehouses.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for stevedores.
1934.
1934.
1934.
1934.
BULGARIA
1924.
Compulsory invalidity and old-age insurance 1933-1934
for employed persons.
251,268
CHILE
1924.
Compulsory invalidity and old-age insurance
for employed persons.
1933
500,000
1934
100,000
COLOMBIA
1929.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for workers on railways.
CUBA
1923.
1927.
1929.
Establishment of a general superannuation
and pension fund for workers and salaried
employees in land transport undertakings.
Establishment of a superannuation and pension fund for workers and salaried employees in ports and undertakings engaged
in maritime or river navigation.
Amendment of pension scheme for persons
employed in ports and navigation undertakings, and for persons employed in land
transport undertakings. Transition from
accumulation to assessment system.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA
(a)
Insurance for miners
1889.
1922.
Compulsory invalidity,
invall
old-age and survivors'
insurance for mi
miners.
Reform and improvement of scheme.
— 213 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Insurance for salaried employees
(b)
1907.
1934.
(c)
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for salaried employees in Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia.
Reform and improvement of scheme.
Insured persons
Year
Number
1934
300,000
1934
1,700,000
1933
1,830,596
1933
approx.
195,700
Insurance for manual workers
1924.
1934.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for workers.
Reform and improvement of scheme.
(d)
Insurance for persons carrying on business independently
1925. Adoption of an Act on compulsory invalidity,
old-age and survivors' insurance for persons carrying on business independently
(Act not yet in force).
DENMARK
1921.
1933.
Compulsory invalidity insurance for all persons of small means who belong to a
voluntary sickness insurance fund.
Compulsory invalidity insurance for all persons between 21 and 60 years of age who
fulfil certain health conditions.
ECUADOR
1928.
Compulsory invalidity and old-age insurance
for the staffs of banks.
FRANCE
(a)
Insurance for seamen
1791.
Establishment of the right to an invalidity
pension for seamen.
Organisation of compulsory invalidity, oldage and survivors' insurance for seamen.
Reform of insurance scheme. Increase of
financial resources and benefits.
Increase of rate of benefits.
1885.
1930.
1931.
(b)
Insurance for miners
1894.
1923.
1929.
Compulsory old-age and survivors' insurance
for workers in mines.
Extension of compulsory insurance to cover
risk of invalidity. Increase of financial
resources and benefits.
Amendment of financial system : partial transition from accumulation to assessment
system. Improvement of benefits.
— 214 —
' '
'••
1931.
1933.
(c)
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Co-ordination of invalidity, old-age and survivors' insurance, for miners with general
scheme of social insurance ; introduction of
new benefits corresponding to those provided under general scheme.
Increase of certain benefit rates.
. Insured persons
Year
Number
•
;
1933
285,857
1933
7,040,000
(including
approximately
640,000 in
agriculture) ,
1933
17,000,000
1933
3,600,000
Insurance for employed persons in general
1910.
1928.
. . ,,
1930.
1934.
1935.
Compulsory old-age, invalidity, and survivors'
insurance (workers' and peasants' pensions).
Establishment of a new scheme of compulsory
old-age, invalidity, and survivors' insuranee.
Bringing into operation of new scheme of
compulsory old-age, invalidity and survivors' insurance for persons employed in
commerce and industry, and of compulsory
old-age and survivors' insurance for persons employed in agriculture.
Extension of insurance to cover the risk of
invalidity for workers in agriculture.
Amendment of financial system in order to
avoid increasing contributions in 1934 as
intended.
Reduction of State subsidy, provided that
initial benefit rates are maintained.
GERMANY
(a)
Insurance for workers
1889.
1899.
1911.
1933.
(b)
Compulsory invalidity and old-age insurance
for workers and salaried employees whose
wages do not exceed a specified limit.
Extension of compulsory insurance to persons
employed in agriculture and forestry.
Codification of social insurance. Insurance
extended to cover risk of death ; unification
of administrative structure of insurance,
procedure and jurisdiction.
Reform of financial system and benefits, with
the object of restoring financial equilibrium.
Insurance for salaried employees
1911.
1933.
Introduction of a special scheme of compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for all salaried employees (who
before 1911 were included in the general
scheme established in 1889).
Reform of financial system and benefits, with
the object of restoring financial equilibrium.
— 215 —
(c)
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Insurance for miners .
1923.
1933.
Establishment of Federal legislation concerning compulsory invalidity, old-age and
survivors' insurance for miners (before
1923, miners' insurance was a matter for
State legislation).
Reform of financial system and benefits, with
the object of restoring financial equilibrium.
Insured persons
Year
Number
1933
500,000
1933
19,178,000
1933
560,000
(including
40,000
miners)
1933
474,000
GREAT BRITAIN
1911.
1925.
Compulsory invalidity insurance for employed
persons.
Compulsory old-age and survivors' insurance
for employed persons.
GREECE
1907.
1922.
1926.
1934.
Establishment of a fund for disabled seamen.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for seamen.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for workers employed in tobacco
manufacture.
Adoption of an Act providing for compulsory
invalidity, old-age, and survivors' insurance for all employed persons except in
agriculture.
HUNGARY
1925.
1928.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for miners.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for persons employed in industry
and commerce.
ICELAND
1890.
1909.
Compulsory old-age insurance for workers
and domestic servants.
Extension of compulsory insurance to all Icelandic nationals between 18 and 60 years
of age.
IRISH FREE STATE
1911.
1935.
Compulsory invalidity insurance for employed
persons.
Compulsory survivors'insurance for employed
persons.
— 216 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Insured persons
Year
Number
ITALY
(a)
Insurance for seamen
1861.
1913.
1919.
¡b)
Establishment of invalidity funds for the
mercantile marine, to cover risks of invalidity, old age, and death, and to replace the
old savings and assistance funds for
seamen.
Amalgamation of the invalidity funds of the
mercantile marine to form a single body:
the Mercantile Marine Invalidity Fund.
Reform of compulsory invalidity, old-age,
and survivors' insurance for seamen.
1933
95,000
1933
6,100,000
1934
40,000
1933
6,000
1933
3,050,000
1933
32,092
Insurance for persons employed in commerce,
industry, and agriculture
1919.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for employed persons.
LUXEMBURG
(a)
Insurance for workers in commerce and industry.
1911.
1925.
1929.
(b)
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for workers in industry and
commerce.
Codification of social insurance. Increase of
financial resources and of benefits provided.
Reassessment of pensions; simplification of
method of calculating benefits.
Insurance for salaried employees
1931.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for salaried employees.
NETHERLANDS
(a)
Insurance for persons employed in commerce,
industry, and agriculture
1913. Adoption of an Act on compulsory invalidity,
old-age, and survivors' insurance for
employed persons.
1919. Bringing into operation of above Act.
(b)
Insurance for miners
1919.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for miners.
PARAGUAY
1924.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for workers employed on railways.
— 217 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
Insured persons
Year
Number
POLAND
(a)
Insurance for workers in commerce and industry
1889.
1912.
1934.
(b)
Compulsory invalidity and old-age insurance
for persons employed in the western
provinces and Upper Silesia.
Compulsory invalidity and old-age insurance
for miners in the southern provinces.
Extension of compulsory insurance for
persons employed in the western provinces
and Upper Silesia, to cover the risk of
death.
Extension and unification, to cover the whole
country, of compulsory invalidity, old-age,
and survivors' insurance for workers
employed in industrial or commercial
undertakings.
Insurance
1907.
1912.
1927.
for
salaried
1934
1,230,000
1934
270,000
1933
600,000
employees
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for salaried employees in the
southern provinces.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age, and survivors'
insurance for salaried employees in the
western provinces and Upper Silesia.
Extension and unification, to cover the whole
country, of compulsory invalidity, old-age
and survivors' insurance for intellectual
workers.
RUMANIA
1912.
1920.
1921.
1924.
1933.
Compulsory old-age, invalidity, and survivors'
insurance for handicraftsmen and persons
employed in industry.
Adaptation of insurance to new economic
conditions : increase of benefits in order to
compensate for depreciation of currency.
Extension of insurance to Bessarabia.
Increase of contributions, and new increases
of benefits in order to compensate for
depreciation of currency.
Unification and co-ordination of social
insurance for the whole country. Extension
of compulsory insurance to persons
employed in commerce.
SPAIN
1919.
Compulsory old-age insurance for employed
persons in general.
— 218 —
Principal stages in the development
. of national legislation
SWEDEN
,
National compulsory invalidity and old-age
insurance covering the whole adult population, except public officials.
Abolition of exception relating to public
officials.
... Insured persons
Year
Number
1933
3,930,000
1933
20,389
1933
27,717
1933
66,132
1937
26,000,000
SWITZERLAND
Insurance is compulsory only in certain cantons.
Glarus
1916.
Compulsory invalidity and old-age insurance
for all persons between 17 and 50 years of
age legally domiciled within the territory
of the Canton.
Appenzell (Outer Rhodes)
1925. Compulsory old-age insurance for all persons
between 18 and 64 years of age legally
domiciled within the territory of the
Canton.
Basle (Town)
1930. Compulsory old-age and survivors' insurance
for all persons between 20 and 65 years of
age having been domiciled in the Canton
for two years.
UNITED STATES
1935.
Compulsory old-age insurance for persons
employed in industry and commerce (Act
to come into operation on 1 January 1937).
URUGUAY
(a)
Insurance for employed persons in general
1919.
1922.
1928.
1933.
1934.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for persons employed in public
utility undertakings.
Extension of compulsory insurance to dockers
and port workers.
Extension of compulsory insurance to
journalists and workers in printing trades,
and to persons employed by joint-stock and
similar companies.
Fixing minimum benefit and restricting
the possibility of drawing both pension and
wages.
General reform and unification of compulsory
insurance scheme. Extension of insurance
to persons employed in commerce and
industry. Amendment of rules in regard to
pensions for service prior to enforcement of
scheme.
1933 '
approx.
150,000
— 219 —
Principal stages in the development
of national legislation
(b)
Insured persons
Year
Number
Insurance for the staffs of banks and the Slock
Exchange
1925.
1933.
1934.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for the staffs of banks and the
Stock Exchange.
Fixing of maximum benefits.
Amendment of rules in regard to pensions for
service prior to enforcement of scheme.
1934
2,198
1934
23,513,600
(provisional
figure)
1934
45,000
1934
10,000
Ü.S.S.R.
1922.
1927.
1929.
1932.
1933.
Compulsory invalidity and survivors' insurance for employed persons.
Compulsory old-age insurance for workers
in the textile industry.
Extension of old-age insurance to workers
employed in key industries and transport.
Extension of old-age insurance to all manual
workers and various categories of nonmanual workers.
Transfer of insurance administration to the
trade unions.
YUGOSLAVIA
(a)
Insurance for miners
1889.
1924.
(b)
Insurance for salaried employees
1909.
1934.
(c)
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for miners in Dalmatia and
Slovenia.
Extension of scheme to miners throughout
the country.
Compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for salaried employees in Dalmatia and Slovenia.
Extension of insurance to salaried employees
in maritime navigation.
Insurance for persons employed in industry and
commerce
1922. Promulgation of an Act to establish compulsory invalidity, old-age and survivors'
insurance for persons employed in industrial and commercial undertakings (Act
not yet in force).