Turin, 18.X.1961
Preamble
The governments signatory hereto, being members of the Council of Europe,
Considering that the aim of the Council of Europe is the achievement of greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and of facilitating their economic and social progress, in particular by the maintenance and further realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms;
Considering that in the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms signed at Rome on 4th November 1950, and the Protocol thereto signed at Paris on 20th March 1952, the member States of the Council of Europe agreed to secure to their populations the civil and political rights and freedoms therein specified;
Considering that the enjoyment of social rights should be secured without discrimination on grounds of race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin;
Being resolved to make every effort in common to improve the standard of living and to promote the social well-being of both their urban and rural populations by means of appropriate institutions and action,
Have agreed as follows:
Part I
The Contracting Parties accept as the aim of their policy, to be pursued by all appropriate means, both national and international in character, the attainment of conditions in which the following rights and principles may be effectively realised:
Part II
The Contracting Parties undertake, as provided for in Part III, to consider themselves bound by the obligations laid down in the following articles and paragraphs.
Article 1 – The right to work
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to work, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 2 – The right to just conditions of work
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to just conditions of work, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 3 – The right to safe and healthy working conditions
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to safe and healthy working conditions, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 4 – The right to a fair remuneration
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to a fair remuneration, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 5 – The right to organise
With a view to ensuring or promoting the freedom of workers and employers to form local, national or international organisations for the protection of their economic and social interests and to join those organisations, the Contracting Parties undertake that national law shall not be such as to impair, nor shall it be so applied as to impair, this freedom. The extent to which the guarantees provided for in this article shall apply to the police shall be determined by national laws or regulations. The principle governing the application to the members of the armed forces of these guarantees and the extent to which they shall apply to persons in this category shall equally be determined by national laws or regulations.
Article 6 – The right to bargain collectively
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to bargain collectively, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 7 – The right of children and young persons to protection
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of children and young persons to protection, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 8 – The right of employed women to protection
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of employed women to protection, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 9 – The right to vocational guidance
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to vocational guidance, the Contracting Parties undertake to provide or promote, as necessary, a service which will assist all persons, including the handicapped, to solve problems related to occupational choice and progress, with due regard to the individual’s characteristics and their relation to occupational opportunity: this assistance should be available free of charge, both to young persons, including school children, and to adults.
Article 10 – The right to vocational training
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to vocational training, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 11 – The right to protection of health
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to protection of health, the Contracting Parties undertake, either directly or in co-operation with public or private organisations, to take appropriate measures designed inter alia:
Article 12 – The right to social security
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to social security, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 13 – The right to social and medical assistance
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to social and medical assistance, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 14 – The right to benefit from social welfare services
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to benefit from social welfare services, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 15 – The right of physically or mentally disabled persons to vocational training, rehabilitation and social resettlement
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of the physically or mentally disabled to vocational training, rehabilitation and resettlement, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 16 – The right of the family to social, legal and economic protection
With a view to ensuring the necessary conditions for the full development of the family, which is a fundamental unit of society, the Contracting Parties undertake to promote the economic, legal and social protection of family life by such means as social and family benefits, fiscal arrangements, provision of family housing, benefits for the newly married, and other appropriate means.
Article 17 – The right of mothers and children to social and economic protection
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of mothers and children to social and economic protection, the Contracting Parties will take all appropriate and necessary measures to that end, including the establishment or maintenance of appropriate institutions or services.
Article 18 – The right to engage in a gainful occupation in the territory of other Contracting Parties
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right to engage in a gainful occupation in the territory of any other Contracting Party, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Article 19 – The right of migrant workers and their families to protection and assistance
With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of the right of migrant workers and their families to protection and assistance in the territory of any other Contracting Party, the Contracting Parties undertake:
Part III
Article 20 – Undertakings
Part IV
Article 21 – Reports concerning accepted provisions
The Contracting Parties shall send to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe a report at two-yearly intervals, in a form to be determined by the Committee of Ministers, concerning the application of such provisions of Part II of the Charter as they have accepted.
Article 22 – Reports concerning provisions which are not accepted
The Contracting Parties shall send to the Secretary General, at appropriate intervals as requested by the Committee of Ministers, reports relating to the provisions of Part II of the Charter which they did not accept at the time of their ratification or approval or in a subsequent notification. The Committee of Ministers shall determine from time to time in respect of which provisions such reports shall be requested and the form of the reports to be provided.
Article 23 – Communication of copies
Article 24 – Examination of the reports
The reports sent to the Secretary General in accordance with Articles 21 and 22 shall be examined by a Committee of Experts, who shall have also before them any comments forwarded to the Secretary General in accordance with paragraph 2 of Article 23.
Article 25 – Committee of Experts
Article 26 – Participation of the International Labour Organisation
The International Labour Organisation shall be invited to nominate a representative to participate in a consultative capacity in the deliberations of the Committee of Experts.
Article 27 – Sub-committee of the Governmental Social Committee
Article 28 – Consultative Assembly
The Secretary General of the Council of Europe shall transmit to the Consultative Assembly the conclusions of the Committee of Experts. The Consultative Assembly shall communicate its views on these conclusions to the Committee of Ministers.
Article 29 – Committee of Ministers
By a majority of two-thirds of the members entitled to sit on the Committee, the Committee of Ministers may, on the basis of the report of the sub-committee, and after consultation with the Consultative Assembly, make to each Contracting Party any necessary recommendations.
Part V
Article 30 – Derogations in time of war or public emergency
Article 31 – Restrictions
Article 32 – Relations between the Charter and domestic law or international agreements
The provisions of this Charter shall not prejudice the provisions of domestic law or of any bilateral or multilateral treaties, conventions or agreements which are already in force, or may come into force, under which more favourable treatment would be accorded to the persons protected.
Article 33 – Implementation by collective agreements
Article 34 – Territorial application
Article 35 – Signature, ratification and entry into force
Article 36 – Amendments
Any member of the Council of Europe may propose amendments to this Charter in a communication addressed to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe. The Secretary General shall transmit to the other members of the Council of Europe any amendments so proposed, which shall then be considered by the Committee of Ministers and submitted to the Consultative Assembly for opinion. Any amendments approved by the Committee of Ministers shall enter into force as from the thirtieth day after all the Contracting Parties have informed the Secretary General of their acceptance. The Secretary General shall notify all the members of the Council of Europe and the Director General of the International Labour Office of the entry into force of such amendments.
Article 37 – Denunciation
Article 38 – Appendix
The appendix to this Charter shall form an integral part of it.
In witness whereof, the undersigned, being duly authorised thereto, have signed this Charter.
Done at Turin, this 18th day of October 1961, in English and French, both texts being equally authoritative, in a single copy which shall be deposited within the archives of the Council of Europe. The Secretary General shall transmit certified copies to each of the Signatories.
Appendix to the Social Charter
Scope of the Social Charter in terms of persons protected
Part I, paragraph 18, and Part II, Article 18, paragraph 1
It is understood that these provisions are not concerned with the question of entry into the territories of the Contracting Parties and do not prejudice the provisions of the European Convention on Establishment, signed at Paris on 13th December 1955.
Part II
Article 1, paragraph 2
This provision shall not be interpreted as prohibiting or authorising any union security clause or practice.
Article 4, paragraph 4
This provision shall be so understood as not to prohibit immediate dismissal for any serious offence.
Article 4, paragraph 5
It is understood that a Contracting Party may give the undertaking required in this paragraph if the great majority of workers are not permitted to suffer deductions from wages either by law or through collective agreements or arbitration awards, the exceptions being those persons not so covered.
Article 6, paragraph 4
It is understood that each Contracting Party may, insofar as it is concerned, regulate the exercise of the right to strike by law, provided that any further restriction that this might place on the right can be justified under the terms of Article 31.
Article 7, paragraph 8
It is understood that a Contracting Party may give the undertaking required in this paragraph if it fulfils the spirit of the undertaking by providing by law that the great majority of persons under 18 years of age shall not be employed in night work.
Article 12, paragraph 4
The words “and subject to the conditions laid down in such agreements” in the introduction to this paragraph are taken to imply inter alia that with regard to benefits which are available independently of any insurance contribution a Contracting Party may require the completion of a prescribed period of residence before granting such benefits to nationals of other Contracting Parties.
Article 13, paragraph 4
Governments not Parties to the European Convention on Social and Medical Assistance may ratify the Social Charter in respect of this paragraph provided that they grant to nationals of other Contracting Parties a treatment which is in conformity with the provisions of the said Convention.
Article 19, paragraph 6
For the purpose of this provision, the term “family of a foreign worker” is understood to mean at least his wife and dependent children under the age of 21 years.
Part III
It is understood that the Charter contains legal obligations of an international character, the application of which is submitted solely to the supervision provided for in Part IV thereof.
Article 20, paragraph 1
It is understood that the “numbered paragraphs” may include articles consisting of only one paragraph.
Part V
Article 30
The term “in time of war or other public emergency” shall be so understood as to cover also the threat of war.