Member States may ask the ILO to interpret the meaning of an international labor standard. Various ILO organs offer interpretations of Conventions, which are treated as authoritative by member States and form a body of ‘case law’ which gives content to the obligations imposed by Conventions and Recommendations. If a member state requests a formal interpretation of a Convention, the decision will be published in the ILO’s Official Bulletin and circulated to all member states.
(source: Marilyn J Pittard and Stuart Butterworth, 'The rich panoply of sources of labor law: National, regional and international' in Matthew W Finkin and Guy Mundlak (eds), Comparative Labor Law (Edward Elgar, 2015) 51)
The following print resources and databases contain cases on International Labour Law:
International survey of legal decisions on labour law (1925-1938) KB 224 INTE (on Level 5 of the Law Library)
ILO Compendium of Court Decisions (open access)
This ILO database contains selected judicial decisions in which domestic and international courts have relied on international labour standards and other international legal instruments to resolve the cases brought before them. The cases included in the database concern not only disputes arising from the world of work but also decisions on human rights outside the sphere of the world of work but still relevant to it. The decisions are presented in the form of summaries underlining how international law was used in each specific case. Decisions can be accessed by searching or browsing via three indexes:
International Labor Rights Case Law: Annotated Jurisprudence on Fundamental Rights at the Workplace
(vol 1, 2015+) (UniMelb staff and student access)
This online caselaw database from Brill focuses primarily on recent jurisprudential developments relating to fundamental rights at the workplace. The database reproduces the relevant texts of key international cases, drawing upon the decision of regional and international mechanisms, such as the ILO Committees, the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights as well as key national courts such as the United States Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of India. It also contains commentaries on selected decisions from leading international labor law academics from around the world.
The Kluwer Encyclopaedia of Labour Law (UniMelb staff & student access)
The Encyclopaedia includes international case law from the Permanent Court of International Justice, the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association, and the Jurisprudence of the ILO Administrative Tribunal.
ILO Committee on Freedom of Association Cases (open access)
Search or browse all CFA cases on NORMLEX. Since its inception in 1951, the Committee has examined over 3000 cases covering over 60 countries. Cases can be searched, or browsed by eg: country, status of case, or type of documentation.
The ILO Administrative Tribunal (open access)
The Tribunal hears complaints by serving or former staff members against arbitrary administrative decisions by international organisations which have recognised the jurisdiction of the Tribunal .
More information on the Tribunal.
More information on the international organisations that have recognised the jurisdiction of the Tribunal.
All Tribunal decisions are available on the TRIBLEX caselaw database. Decisions can be browsed by session, organisation or keyword, and searched by term, date, organisation, session, keyword, or judgment number. The enabling statute and rules of the Administrative Tribunal are also on TRIBLEX.
The ILO Compendium of Court Decisions and the International Labor Rights Case Law: Annotated Jurisprudence on Fundamental Rights at the Workplace referred to in the Caselaw box above contain selected decisions from domestic courts ie: those considered legally significant and / or those that contain substantive discussion of an ILO Convention. To find all Australian cases mentioning ILO Conventions, use the advanced search features in case law databases such as AustLII, Westlaw and JADE. Sometimes you may need to search the convention as a phrase with inverted commas, eg. "Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention"
For example in JADE (open access)
Select JADE Browser from the top menu
use the Advanced Search feature (three dot icon alongside search bar)
Type the Convention into the TEXT box, selecting Whole Documents
In Collection field select All Courts from the drop down menu
Search results will include case law that cites the convention.