CONVENTION
CONCERNING THE SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS OF NEW
METHODS OF CARGO HANDLING IN DOCKS

Convention 137

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

Considering that important changes have taken place and are taking place in cargo-handling methods in docks - such as the adoption of unit loads, the introduction of roll-on roll-off techniques and the increase of mechanisation and automation - and in the pattern of movement of freight, and that such changes are expected to become more widespread in the future, and

Considering that such changes, by speeding up freight movements, reducing the time spent by ships in ports and lowering transport costs, may benefit the economy of the country concerned as a whole and contribute to the raising of the standard of living, and

Considering that such changes also involve considerable repercussions on the level of employment in ports and on the conditions of work and life of dockworkers, and that measures should be adopted to prevent or to reduce the problems consequent thereon, and