ILO Convention No. 138
Minimum Age Convention, 1973
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 Fifty-eighth Session on 6 June 1973, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to minimum
age for admission to employment, which is the fourth item on the agenda of the
session, and
Noting the terms of the Minimum Age (Industry) Convention, 1919, the Minimum
Age (Sea) Convention, 1920, the Minimum Age (Agriculture) Convention, 1921,
the Minimum Age (Trimmers and Stokers) Convention, 1921, the Minimum Age
(Non-Industrial Employment) Convention, 1932, the Minimum Age (Sea)
Convention (Revised), 1936, the Minimum Age (Industry) Convention (Revised),
1937, the Minimum Age (Non-Industrial Employment) Convention (Revised),
1937, the Minimum Age (Fishermen) Convention, 1959, and the Minimum Age
(Underground Work) Convention, 1965, and
Considering that the time has come to establish a general instrument on the
subject, which would gradually replace the existing ones applicable to limited
economic sectors, with a view to achieving the total abolition of child labour, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an international
Convention, adopts the twenty-sixth day of June of the year one thousand nine
hundred and seventy-three, the following Convention, which may be cited as the
Minimum Age Convention, 1973:
Article 1
1.
Each Member for which this Convention is in force undertakes to
pursue a national policy designed to ensure the effective abolition of child labour
and to raise progressively the minimum age for admission to employment or work
to a level consistent with the fullest physical and mental development of young
persons.
Article 2
2. (1)
Each Member which ratifies this Convention shall specify, in a
declaration appended to its ratification, a minimum age for admission to
employment or work within its territory and on means of transport registered in its
territory; subject to Articles 4 to 8 of this Convention, no one under that age shall
be admitted to employment or work in any occupation.
2. (2)
Each Member which has ratified this Convention may subsequently
notify the Director-