INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION
| PORTUGAL |
| ORGANIZAçÃO INTERNACIONAL DE TRABALHO INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION |
Created under the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and nowadays a specialized agency connected with the United Nations, the ILO (the Portuguese acronym is OIT) is an institution specifically concerned with issues relating to labour matters in the fields of employment, vocational training, working conditions and social security. It is singular in having a genuinely tripartite structure, with member countries represented by governmental, employers' and workers' delegates. Its activities include, in particular, the adoption of Recommendations (non-binding instruments) and Conventions (international treaties which are legally binding on those countries which ratify them), through which it attempts to encourage or oblige member countries to take measures giving practical effect to its aims. Portugal was one of the founder members of the ILO and has ratified some 70 of its Conventions, which apply in the national system of law as binding on the State of Portugal at international level (see international law ). Following a period after the 1974 revolution during which the appointment of the Portuguese workers' representatives to the ILO's International Labour Conference was the subject of heated dispute, a rotation system is now in place whereby this appointment falls to each of the two trade union confederations alternately.
Please note: the European industrial relations glossaries were compiled between 1991 and 2003 and are not updated. For current material see the European industrial relations dictionary.