Transmittal to Congress of Conventions and Recommendations of the International Labor Conference at Geneva in 1939.

To the Congress:

The Congress, by a Joint Resolution approved June 19, 1934, authorized me to accept membership for the Government of the United States in the International Labor Organization. Pursuant to that authorization I accepted such membership on behalf of the Government of the United States.

Representatives of this Government and of American employers and American labor attended the Twenty-fifth Session of the International Labor Conference held at Geneva, June 8 to 28,1939. That Conference adopted four Draft Conventions and ten Recommendations to wit:

The Recommendation (No. 57) concerning vocational training;

The Draft Convention (No. 54) concerning the regulation of written contracts of employment of indigenous workers;

The Recommendation (No. 58) concerning the maximum length of written contracts of employment of indigenous workers;

The Draft Convention (No. 65) concerning penal sanctions for breaches of contracts of employment by indigenous workers;

The Recommendation (No. 59) concerning labor inspectorates for indigenous workers;

The Recommendation (No. 60) concerning apprenticeship;

The Draft Convention (No. 66) concerning the recruitment, placing and conditions of labor of migrants for employment;

The Recommendation (No. 61) concerning the recruitment, placing and conditions of labor of migrants for employment;

The Recommendation (No. 62) concerning cooperation between States relating to the recruitment, placing and conditions of labor of migrants for employment;

The Draft Convention (No. 67) concerning the regulation of hours of work and rest periods in road transport;

The Recommendation (No. 63) concerning individual control books in road transport;

The Recommendation (No. 64) concerning the regulation of night work in road transport;

The Recommendation (No. 65) concerning the methods of regulating hours of work in road transport;

The Recommendation (No. 66) concerning rest periods of professional drivers of private vehicles.

In becoming a member of the International Labor Organization, pursuant to a Joint Resolution of the Congress approved June 19, 1934, this Government assumed the following undertaking in regard to such draft Conventions and Recommendations:

Each of the Members undertakes that it will within the period of one year at most from the closing of the session of the Conference, or if it is impossible owing to exceptional circumstances to do so within the period of one year, then at the earliest practicable moment and in no case later than eighteen months from the closing of the session of the Conference, bring the Recommendation or Draft Convention before the authority or authorities within whose competence the matter lies, for the enactment of legislation or other action. (Article 19 (405), Paragraph 5, Constitution of the International Labor Organization.)

In the case of a Federal State, the power of which to enter into conventions on labor matters is subject to limitations, it shall be in the discretion of that Government to treat a draft convention to which such limitations apply as a recommendation only, and the provisions of this Article with respect to recommendations shall apply in such case. (Article 19 (405), Paragraph 9, Constitution of the International Labor Organization.)

In accordance with the foregoing undertaking the above named four Draft Conventions and ten Recommendations are herewith submitted to the Congress with the accompanying report of the Secretary of State and its enclosures, to which the attention of the Congress is invited.