INTERNATIONAL LABOUR.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19065, 10 January 1924, Page 3

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR.

NEW OFFICES IN GENEVA CONFERENCE IN 1925. The International Labour Office, since July.. 1920, has been boused in. a school building ■which was provisionally adapted for its use. ■With a view to the erection of a more suitable building, the Swiss Government offered a site near the headquarters of the secretariat of the League of Nations. In the course of its 1322 session, the Assembly of the League of Nations accepted this gift and voted the necessary credits for the erection of the new building. The foundation stone of the new building •was laid at Geneva on October 21, bn the eve of the opening of the fifth session of the International Labour Conference. The three first stones were laid by the chairmen of the employers’, workers’, and government groups in the governing body of the International Labour Office, thus symbolising the unity which is characteristic of the work of the office. Reference was made to offers by the various Governments of the 57 States ■which are members of the organisation to contribute to the decoration of the new building products of their national art and industry. The twentieth session of the governing body of the International Labour Office was held in Geneva in October. A number of countries in which the eight hours’ day is practically universal have found themselves unable, for various ■reasons, to ratify the draft convention adopted by the first session of the conference limiting the hours of work to eight in the ' day and 48 in the week. Among these countries is Great Britain, which, in 1921. proposed a revision of the convention with a view to facilitating ratification by making certain modifications which, without affecting •the principles of the convention, would give it greater elasticity. A committee recommended that it was dcFbable first to request the countries which desired to ratify, but had been v.nable. to do so. to indicate the precise nature of their difficulties and the changes which they suggested. The governing body, after full discussion, decided to take no action on the matter, thus setting aside the proposal of the British Government. The governing body decided to instruct the director to have a complete report prepared on the practical application in all countries of the principle of freedom of association. This report would show the legislation dealwith the question in each country, and the interpolation of this legislation in jurisprudence and in practice. It was; desired to give the Government and the International Labour ‘Office more time than has hitherto been the case for the completion of preparatory work necessitated, by the conferences. The governing body therefore considered what questions it was desirable to place upon the agenda for the International Labour Conference of 1925. It was felt that at a time when a large number of countries are proceeding to revise their legislation on social insurance, this was a subject which ought to be dealt with by the International Labour organisation. It was therefore decided to include on the agenda for the 1925 conference the discussion of a repmt on the general principles of social insurance, and, as a second subject, the special question of industrial accidents.