Labour law is local law. How long you may work, how you are protected against dismissal, what you are paid as a minimum – all of this is decided by the law of the country where you work. At the international level, however, the standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO) have set the benchmark since its foundation in 1919, in the age of industrialisation (s. Chapter 04.02 History of work). Once a country has ratified an ILO Convention, its principles must be reflected in national labour law. This is the idea of this chapter: you learn the ILO standards – and then you check, with the help of an AI chatbot, whether and how your own country has implemented them. Switzerland serves as the example.
Terms «labour/labor law», «employment law»
In the field of labour law, the terms «labour law» (Brit.) or «labor law» (Am.) and «employment law» are used. The term labour/labor law is generally used for mandatory, usually public or international law; the term employment law is generally used for private law, i.e. the private employment relationship.
Involved parties
In labour law, three parties are involved: the labour authorities; the employers, often represented by employers’ associations; and the workers, usually represented by trade unions (or just «unions»). When these three actors interact, this is called «tripartite» – the principle on which the ILO itself is built (s. Chapter 04.03). In Switzerland, for example, tripartite commissions of the authorities, employers and unions monitor the labour market and may propose minimum wages by way of standard employment contracts (Art. 360b CO).
Types of labour rules
If one wants to assess a relationship under labour law, one must know what legal basis underlies it. There are four types of labour rules, applied according to a hierarchy. The hierarchy is similar in most countries; the example is Switzerland.
First, mandatory public law (in Switzerland primarily the Labour Act, no official English translation) and mandatory private law (in Switzerland the mandatory provisions of the Code of Obligations, listed in Art. 361 and Art. 362 CO) apply to every employment relationship. These rules cannot be modified – or, in the case of Art. 362 CO, only in favour of the employee.
Second, collective agreements. An important factor in the Swiss working world is the social partnership between employers and trade unions. Swiss labour law gives them the possibility to negotiate their own rules (Art. 356 ff. CO). In principle, these rules apply only to the members of the contracting associations. However, the Federal Council (or the canton) can declare them generally binding (Federal Act on the Extension of Collective Employment Contracts, no official English translation); the rules then apply to all workers of the industry concerned.
Third, the employment contract concluded individually between employer and employee.
At the very end of the hierarchy is the dispositive labour law: rules of the law that apply unless the parties have agreed otherwise – which is generally the definition of the legal term «dispositive law».
From Convention to national law
How does an international standard become local law? The ILO adopts Conventions (binding treaties) and Recommendations (non-binding guidance). A Convention binds a country only once that country has ratified it (ILO Constitution, Art. 19). Ratifying countries must then put the Convention into practice in their own law and report regularly to the ILO on how they do so. Which country has ratified which Convention is public: the ILO database NORMLEX shows the ratifications of every member state. Only the fundamental Conventions (s. Chapter 04.04) apply to all member states, whether ratified or not.
This gives you a three-step check for any country: 1. Has the country ratified the Convention? 2. Where in national law is the standard implemented? 3. Does the national rule actually meet the standard? Switzerland, for example, has ratified the Maternity Protection Convention (No. 183); the standard is implemented in the Code of Obligations (Art. 329f CO) and in the Loss of Earnings Compensation Act (no official English translation). With an AI chatbot, this check takes minutes for any country – and this is what you will do in the exercises of this chapter.
Exercise: your country’s ratifications
Ask your AI chatbot (Claude, ChatGPT or similar): «Which of the ten fundamental ILO Conventions has [my country] ratified, and in which year?» Then verify the answer in NORMLEX. Did the chatbot get it right? Note any difference – you will need the list in Chapter 04.04. (Spoiler for Switzerland: 8 of 10.)