TNAG-0531-FCO40-626-Application-of-International-Labour-Convention-to-Hong-Kong-1975 — Page 36

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27.

Unemployment benefit schemes of many countries are in fact contributing towards better utilisation of human resources, greater continuity of employment and improvement of employability of the unemployed. They provide, in addition to the principal benefit for income security, unemployed workers with benefits a nd facilities linked to the skill development and labour mobility, including assistance in the relocation of a claimant and his family and in the training and retraining of workers unemployed as a result of technological changes, scientific advances or loss of market to foreign competitors. An example of national legislation in this regard is the 1969 Employment Promotion Act of the Federal Republic of Germany, which included provisions regarding benefits for unemployed persons among various measures to be carried out within the framework of the social and economic policy of the Government in such a way that a high level of employment is achieved and maintained, the employment structure constantly improved and the growth of the economy thereby promoted. Another example is the Bill recently formulated by the Japanese Ministry of Labour to amend the existing unemployment insurance scheme which is named as a bill to introduce "employment insurance", with a view to improving employment structure, developing workers' skill and promoting welfare of working people, in addition to the grant of unemployment benefits.

III.

Persons protected by social security or scope

of its application

28. Any social security scheme aims at protecting all the population of the country. However, in social security, as in many other areas of social policy, action depends not only

on what is socially desirable, but also on what is economically possible and administratively feasible. Generally speaking, in many developing countries the objective needs for social security are tremendous and subjective needs arising from the knowledge of ways of life in other countries are rapidly increasing. It would, however, be utopian to believe that a comprehensive social security scheme covering the entire population or even all the economically- active population might be established today or tomorrow. The need to be realistic is therefore always emphasised in planning the introduction of a social security scheme and a realistic approach has led many countries to the policy decision that social security should be extended gradually as economic resources and other related facilities permit. In many countries the economically-active persons who are first covered by social insurance are wage earners and salaried employees whose numerical and political importance is steadily increasing, and whose means of subsistence depends entirely or largely on their earnings.

Employees in small establishments

29. While the national legislation of social insurance in many countries envisages the coverage of all wage earners and salaried employees, the legal framework of the scheme is designed so as to enable the authority to extend the scope of application by stages. For example, at the initial stage of its implementation, the scheme covers employees in the establishments having, say, twenty or more workers in one or two specified areas, and the limitation is gradually abolished according to working experience of the scheme and its available resources. If the scope of a scheme includes smaller establishments from the outset of its operation, the scheme will face some serious administrative difficulties. For example, small businesses may be short lived and it may be impossible to trace the employer Or his employees, resulting in

duplicating registration of such employees in the social insurance institution. For small employers it may not be an easy task to follow the complicated procedures of social insurance operations in view of their limited staff. However, if an undertaking's participation in, or exclusion from, social insurance depends on an increase in or reduction of its labour force by one individual (so that a slight change in number of workers might bring all its workers into or out of the scheme), it would seem to be a nuisance which must be stopped as soon as the scheme has established itself administratively. In practice, the national legislation of many countries provides that once an undertaking is covered by the scheme, it should remain in the scheme even if the number of employees decreases below the prescribed minimum.

the rural population by social The present paper does not discuss

1 For the coverage of ASS/II/4/1974, paras. 18-21. problem area.

see

security, this important

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