belgiquelex.be - Carrefour Bank of Legislation

1^er MARCH 1998. - Law on approval of Convention No. 141 concerning rural workers ' organizations and their role in economic and social development adopted at Geneva on 23 June 1975 by the International Conference at its sixtieth session (1)

ALBERT II, King of the Belgians,
To all, present and to come, Hi.
The Chambers adopted and We sanction the following:
Article 1^er. This Act regulates a matter referred to in Article 77 of the Constitution.
Art. 2. The Convention No. 141 concerning rural workers ' organizations and their role in economic and social development, adopted at Geneva on 23 June 1975 by the International Labour Conference at its sixtieth session, will emerge its full and full effect.
Promulgate this law, order that it be clothed with the seal of the State and published by the Belgian Monitor.
Given in Brussels, 1^er March 1998.
ALBERT
By the King:
Minister of Foreign Affairs,
E. DERYCKE
Minister of Employment and Labour
Ms. M. SMET
Seal of the state seal:
Minister of Justice,
S. DE CLERCK
____
Note
(1) Session 1996-1997
Senat
Documents. - Bill tabled on 28 July 1997, No. 1-714/1.
(1) Session 1997-1998
Report on behalf of the Commission 1-714/2. - Text adopted by the Commission 1-714/3.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion, session of 3/12/1997. - Vote, meeting of 4/12/1997.
Room
Documents. - Project transmitted by the Senate, No. 49-1320/1. Report on behalf of the Commission 49-1320/2.
Annales parliamentarians. - Discussion, session of 13/01/1998. - Vote, meeting of 15/01/1998.

Convention concerning rural workers ' organizations and their role in economic and social development, adopted by the conference at its sixtieth session, Geneva, 23 June 1975
The General Conference of the International Labour Organization,
Convened in Geneva by the Board of Directors of the International Labour Office and met on 4 June 1975 at its sixtieth session;
Recognizing that because of their importance in the world, it is urgent to involve rural workers in the tasks of economic and social development in order to improve their working and living conditions in a sustainable and effective manner;
Noting that, in many countries of the world and particularly in developing countries, the land is used in a very insufficient manner and the labour force is very largely underemployed, and that these facts require that rural workers be encouraged to develop free, viable and capable organizations to protect and defend the interests of their members and to ensure their effective contribution to economic and social development;
Considering that the existence of such organizations can and must contribute to mitigating the persistent shortage of food in several parts of the world;
Recognizing that agrarian reform is, in a large number of developing countries, an essential factor in improving the working and living conditions of rural workers and that, accordingly, the organizations of these workers should cooperate and actively participate in the process of this reform;
Recalling the terms of existing international labour conventions and recommendations, in particular the agreement on the right of association (agriculture) 1921, the convention on freedom of association and the protection of the right to trade union, 1948, and the agreement on the right to organize and collective bargaining, 1949 which affirm the right of all workers, including rural workers, to establish free and independent organizations, as well as the provisions of many international labour conventions and recommendations applicable to rural workers
Noting that the United Nations and the specialized agencies, in particular the International Labour Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, have an interest in agrarian reform and rural development;
Noting that the following standards have been developed in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and that, to avoid duplication, cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the United Nations will continue to promote and ensure the implementation of these standards;
Having decided to adopt various proposals relating to organizations of rural workers and their role in economic and social development, which constitutes the fourth item on the agenda of the session;
After deciding that these proposals would take the form of an international convention,
adopts this twenty-third day of June nine hundred and seventy-five, the following convention, to be called the Convention on Rural Workers Organizations, 1975:
Article 1^er
This Agreement applies to all types of rural workers' organizations, including organizations that do not limit themselves to these workers but represent them.
Article 2
1. For the purposes of this Agreement, the term "rural workers" means any person who, in rural areas, has an agricultural, artisanal or other occupation, assimilated or related, whether it be employees or, subject to paragraph 2 of this Article, persons working on their own behalf, such as farmers, farmers and smallholders.
2. This Agreement applies only to those of farmers, metayers or smallholder farmers whose main source of income is agriculture and who work the land themselves with the sole help of their family or using third parties on a purely occasional basis and who:
a) do not permanently use the workforce, or
b) do not use a large seasonal workforce, or
(c) do not grow their land by metayers or farmers.
Article 3
1. All categories of rural workers, whether they are employees or people working on their own behalf, have the right, without prior authorization, to form organizations of their choice and to join them, on the sole condition of complying with their statutes.
2. The principles of trade union freedom must be fully respected; rural workers ' organizations should be independent and established on a voluntary basis and should not be subjected to any interference, coercion or repressive measures.
3. The acquisition of legal personality by organizations of rural workers may not be subject to conditions that may jeopardize the application of the provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article.
4. In the exercise of their rights under this section, rural workers and their respective organizations are obliged, like other organized individuals or communities, to respect legality.
5. National legislation shall not infringe or be applied in such a way as to undermine the safeguards provided for in this article.
Article 4
One of the objectives of the national rural development policy should be to facilitate the formation and development, on a voluntary basis, of organizations of rural, strong and independent workers, as an effective means of ensuring that these workers, without discrimination within the meaning of the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958, participate in economic and social development and benefit from the benefits derived from it.
Article 5
1. In order to enable rural workers' organizations to play their role in economic and social development, any Member that ratifies this Convention must adopt and implement a policy to encourage these organizations, in particular with a view to eliminating obstacles to their constitution, development and exercise of their legal activities, as well as legislative and administrative discrimination against rural workers' organizations and their members.
2. Any Member who ratifies this Convention shall ensure that national legislation is not an obstacle, given the conditions of the rural sector, to the establishment and development of rural workers' organizations.
Article 6
Measures should be taken to promote the widest possible understanding of the need to develop rural workers' organizations and the contribution they can make to improving employment opportunities and general conditions of work and living in rural areas as well as to increasing and better distribution of national income.
Article 7
The formal ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office and recorded by him.
Article 8
1. This Convention shall be binding only on Members of the International Labour Organization whose ratification has been registered by the Director General.
2. It will enter into force twelve months after the ratifications of two Members have been registered by the Director-General.
3. Subsequently, this agreement will come into force for each member twelve months after the date on which its ratification was registered.
Article 9
1. Any Member who has ratified this Convention may denounce it at the expiry of a period of ten years after the date of the initial entry into force of the Convention, by an act communicated to the Director General of the International Labour Office and registered to it. The denunciation will only take effect one year after being registered.
2. Any Member that has ratified this Convention that, within one year after the expiration of the ten-year period referred to in the preceding paragraph, shall not make use of the denunciation faculty provided for in this Article shall be bound for a further ten-year period and, thereafter, may denounce this Convention at the expiry of each ten-year period under the conditions set out in this Article.
Article 10
1. The Director General of the International Labour Office will notify all members of the International Labour Organization of the registration of all ratifications and denunciations that will be communicated to it by the Members of the Organization.
2. In notifying the Members of the Organization of the second ratification that has been communicated to it, the Director-General will draw the attention of the Members of the Organization to the date on which this Convention will enter into force.
Article 11
The Director General of the International Labour Office will provide to the Secretary General of the United Nations, for registration, in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations, full information on all ratifications and denunciation that it has registered in accordance with the preceding articles.
Article 12
Each time it deems necessary, the Board of Directors of the International Labour Office will present to the General Conference a report on the application of this Convention and will consider whether it is necessary to include in the agenda of the Conference the question of its total or partial revision.
Article 13
1. In the event that the Conference adopts a new Convention for the full or partial revision of this Convention, and unless the new Convention otherwise provides:
(a) the ratification by a Member of the new revision convention would entail full right, notwithstanding Article 9 above, immediate denunciation of this Convention, subject to the entry into force of the new revision convention;
(b) from the date of the entry into force of the new revision convention, this Convention would cease to be open to the ratification of Members.
2. This Convention would in any case remain in force in its form and content for those Members who have ratified it and who would not ratify the Review Convention.
Article 14
The English and French versions of the text of this Convention are equally authentic.
The above text is the authentic text of the Convention duly adopted by the General Conference of the International Labour Organization in its sixtieth session held in Geneva and declared closed on the twenty-fifth day of June 1975.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, this twenty-sixth day of June 1975:
The President of the Conference,
Blas F. OPLE.
Director General of the International Labour Office,
F. BLANCHARD

Convention No. 141 concerning organizations of rural workers and their role in economic and social development, adopted at Geneva on 23 June 1975
For the consultation of the table, see image