Employment Promotion and Protection Against Unemployment Convention, 1988 (No. 168)
The main aim of Convention No. 168 is twofold: the protection of unemployed persons through the provision of benefits in the form of periodical payments and through the promotion of employment. Convention No. 168 therefore recognises the value of linking social security to broader social and economic policies directed at one priority goal: the promotion of full, productive and freely chosen employment. In addition to provided benefits in case of unemployment at a minimum replacement rate of 50 per cent of the reference wage, ratifying States are therefore also called to adopt appropriate steps to coordinate their system of protection against unemployment and their employment policy. The system of protection against unemployment should therefore be such to encourage employers from offering, and workers from seeking, productive employment. Persons protected must comprise prescribed classes of employees, constituting not less than 85 per cent of all employees, including public employees and apprentices, or all residents whose resources during the contingencies do not exceed prescribed limits.