Worker
  1. It is difficult to define the word "worker" in ILO instruments in terms of one single meaning. Some Conventions propose a definition that is intended to meet their specific requirements.[267] The word "worker(s)" is sometimes qualified by terms such as "part-time worker";[268] "full-time workers affected by partial unemployment";[269] "comparable full-time worker";[270] "night worker";[271] "the workers concerned";[272] "migrant worker";[273] or "rural workers".[274]
  1. The practice of the ILC has been to give the broadest possible meaning to the term "workers". On many occasions, it has been emphasized that, if the subject matter of a given instrument is not limited only to employed workers, or the instrument does not provide for any specific exclusion in respect of one or more categories of workers, then "worker" is understood to cover all workers.[275]
  1. Employment, employee, employed person. On the other hand, where instruments refer to "employment" and "employee" or "employed person", the intention is generally to indicate a more restricted meaning. For example, the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102), and subsequent supplementary instruments stipulate that protection must be provided for prescribed classes of "employees", the "[economically] active population", or "residents". It emerged from the discussions that preceded the adoption of the instrument that the term "employee" should not cover self-employed workers, although they are in fact covered by virtue of being part of the "active population". Similarly, the Holidays with Pay Convention (Revised), 1970 (No. 132), refers to "employed persons" in order to make it clear that only dependent workers are covered. On the other hand, the minimum age instruments tend to make use of the dual terminology "employed or work" to ensure that all forms of economic activity are covered.[276] The Employment Relationship Recommendation, 2006 (No. 198), provides recent guidance.
  1. Agricultural worker. Again, unless there are provisions stating explicitly the category of agricultural workers covered, it should be assumed that all workers who live from or depend directly on agricultural activities are covered, irrespective of the nature of their economic relationship with the land.[277]
[267] See, for example, the definition of workers in dock work or protection of port workers: C28, Art. 1(2); C32, Art. 1(2); and C152, Art. 3(a); definition of indigenous workers: C64, Art. 1(a), C86, Art. 1(a); definition of workers in the context of employment agencies: C181, Art. 1; in the area of occupational safety and health: C155, Art. 3(b); in the area of construction: C167, Art. 2(d); and in the area of protection from asbestos: C162, Art. 2(f).
[268] C175, Art. 1 a); and R182, Para. 2 a).
[269] R182, Para. 2 d).
[270] C175, Art. 1 c); and R182, Para. 2 c).
[271] R178, Para. 1 b).
[272] C172, Art. 2 (1); and R179, Para. 3.
[273] R86, Para. 1  a); and R100, Para. 2.
[274] C141, Art. 2 (1); and R149, Para. 2 (1).
[275] See the particular examples in the ILO Memorandum addressed to the German Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs concerning C96, reproduced in OB, Vol. XLIX, No. 3, 1966, pp. 389-390. See also the following cases: Case No. 1975 (Canada), 316th Report, OB, Vol.  LXXXII, 1999, Series B, No. 2, Para. 270, as published in GB.275/4/1 (workers in community participation schemes); Case No. 2013 (Mexico), 326th Report, OB, Vol. LXXXIV, 2001, Series B, No. 3, Para. 416, as published in GB.282/6 (instructors governed by contracts for the provision of services ); Case No. 2022 ( New Zealand), 324th Report, OB, Vol. LXXXIV, 2001, Series B, No. 1, paras. 763-768, as published in GB.280/9 (community wage recipients). The question of workers in managerial capacity was decided upon by the PCIJ in Interpretation of the Convention of 1919 concerning employment of women during the night, PCIJ Advisory Opinion, reproduced in OB, Vol. XVII, No. 5, 1932, as published in PCIJ, Series A/B, No. 50, at p. 365. Other categories covered by the notion of workers in the ILO instruments are civil servants, self-employed workers, agricultural workers, workers in the liberal professions and domestic staff and workers in the informal economy.
[276] C5, Art. 2; C10, Art. 1; C59, Art. 2 (1); C138, Art. 3.    
[277] For example, R132 covers tenants, share croppers and similar categories of agricultural workers. Similar terminology is used in C129 and C141.