Usage Statistics

11 Good Reasons for Ratifying the ILO* Homework Convention (C177)

1. ILO Conventions are international law. After a country ratifies a Convention, it must transpose it into national legislation. So the Conventions provide a basis for individual legal protection and legal security.
2. The Home Work Convention (C177) provides for equality of treatment between homeworkers and other wage earners (Article 4.1).
3. C177 calls for minimum labour standards and minimum standards of protection, so homeworkers around the world cannot be played off against each other.
4. C177 is universally applicable to all homeworkers, and not just to those in one sector. So it affords protection to those who are at the bottom of a production chain.
5. Home work is a major part of the informal economy. Ratification of C177 would mean that this sector was regulated and would thus bring it out of the economic “grey area“.
6. Home work is mainly done by women, and it has some of the world’s worst pay rates. Ratification of C177 would give recognition to this type of work and would be a step towards preventing the worst forms of exploitation.
7. Statistics on the worldwide dimensions of home work are inadequate. But statistics are the basis for political action. C177 specifically calls for the inclusion of home work in labour statistics (Article 6).
8. Convention 177 emphasises homeworkers’ right to establish or join organisations of their own choosing and to participate in the activities of such organisations (Article 4, 2a). Ratification of C177 would encourage homeworkers to organise themselves and would give them legal security.
9. Ratification of C177 would be an act of solidarity with homeworkers in the South.
10. Only if the core labour standards and other minimum standards are implemented worldwide can the downward spiral in living and working conditions be halted. Ratification of the Home Work Convention would contribute to this.
11. Ratification of an ILO Convention entails compliance with a reporting and monitoring system on its application.

* ILO = International Labour Organisation.