Date adopted: 28 June 1952
Document Number/Symbol: C103
Organization: International Labour Organisation
C103 Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952
Convention concerning Maternity Protection (Revised 1952) (Note: Date of coming into force: 07:09:1955.)
Description:(Convention)
Convention:C103
Place:Geneva
Session of the Conference:35
Date of adoption:28:06:1952
Subject classification: Maternity Benefit
Subject classification: Maternity Protection
See the ratifications for this Convention
Display the document in: French Spanish
The General Conference of the International Labour Organisation,
Having been convened at Geneva by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, and having met
in its Thirty-fifth Session on 4 June 1952, and
Having decided upon the adoption of certain proposals with regard to maternity protection, which is the
seventh item on the agenda of the session, and
Having determined that these proposals shall take the form of an international Convention,
adopts the twenty-eighth day of June of the year one thousand nine hundred and fifty-two, the following
Convention, which may be cited as the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952.
Article 1
1. This Convention applies to women employed in industrial undertakings and in non-industrial and
agriculture occupations, including women wage earners working at home.
2. For the purpose of this Convention, the term industrial undertaking comprises public and private
undertakings and any branch thereof and includes particularly--
(a) mines, quarries, and other works for the extraction of minerals from the earth;
(b) undertakings in which articles are manufactured, altered, cleaned, repaired, ornamented, finished,
adapted for sale, broken up or demolished, or in which materials are transformed, including undertakings
engaged in shipbuilding, or in the generation, transformation or transmission of electricity or motive power of
any kind;
(c) undertakings engaged in building and civil engineering work, including constructional, repair,
maintenance, alteration and demolition work;
(d) undertakings engaged in the transport of passengers or goods by road, rail, sea, inland waterway or air,
including the handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves, warehouses or airports.
3. For the purpose of this Convention, the term non-industrial occupations includes all occupations which
are carried on in or in connection with the following undertakings or services, whether public or private:
(a) commercial establishments;
(b) postal and telecommunication services;
(c) establishments and administrative services in which the persons employed are mainly engaged in
clerical work;
(d) newspaper undertakings;
(e) hotels, boarding houses, restaurants, clubs, cafés and other refreshment houses;
(f) establishments for the treatment and care of the sick, infirm or destitute and of orphans;
(g) theatres and places of public entertainment;
(h) domestic work for wages in private households; and any other non-industrial occupations to which the
competent authority may decide to apply the provisions of the Convention.
4. For the purpose of this Convention, the term agricultural occupations includes all occupations carried
on in agricultural undertakings, including plantations and large-scale industrialised agricultural undertakings.
5. In any case in which it is doubtful whether this Convention applies to an undertaking, branch of an
undertaking or occupation, the question shall be determined by the competent authority after consultation
with the representative organisations of employers and workers concerned where such exist.
6. National laws or regulations may exempt from the application of this Convention undertakings in which
only members of the employer's family, as defined by national laws or regulations, are employed.
Article 2
For the purpose of this Convention, the term woman means any female person, irrespective of age,
nationality, race or creed, whether married or unmarried, and the term child means any child whether born
of marriage or not.
Article 3
1. A woman to whom this Convention applies shall, on the production of a medical certificate stating the
presumed date of her confinement, be entitled to a period of maternity leave.
2. The period of maternity leave shall be at least twelve weeks, and shall include a period of compulsory
leave after confinement.
3. The period of compulsory leave after confinement shall be prescribed by national laws or regulations, but
shall in no case be less than six weeks; the remainder of the total period of maternity leave may be provided
before the presumed date of confinement or following expiration of the compulsory leave period or partly
before the presumed date of confinement and partly following the expiration of the compulsory leave period
as may be prescribed by national laws or regulations.
4. The leave before the presumed date of confinement shall be extended by any period elapsing between the
presumed date of confinement and the actual date of confinement and the period of compulsory leave to be
taken after confinement shall not be reduced on that account.
5. In case of illness medically certified arising out of pregnancy, national laws or regulations shall provide for
additional leave before confinement, the maximum duration of which may be fixed by the competent
authority.
6. In case of illness medically certified arising out of confinement, the woman shall be entitled to an extension
of the leave after confinement, the maximum duration of which may be fixed by the competent authority.
Article 4
1. While absent from work on maternity leave in accordance with the provisions of Article 3, the woman shall
be entitled to receive cash and medical benefits.
2. The rates of cash benefit shall be fixed by national laws or regulations so as to ensure benefits sufficient
for the full and healthy maintenance of herself and her child in accordance with a suitable standard of living.
3. Medical benefits shall include pre-natal, confinement and post-natal care by qualified midwives or medical
practitioners as well as hospitalisation care where necessary; freedom of choice of doctor and freedom of
choice between a public and private hospital shall be respected.
4. The cash and medical benefits shall be provided either by means of compulsory social insurance or by
means of public funds; in either case they shall be provided as a matter of right to all women who comply
with the prescribed conditions.
5. Women who fail to qualify for benefits provided as a matter of right shall be entitled, subject to the means
test required for social assistance, to adequate benefits out of social assistance funds.
6. Where cash benefits provided under compulsory social insurance are based on previous earnings, they
shall be at a rate of not less than two-thirds of the woman's previous earnings taken into account for the
purpose of computing benefits.
7. Any contribution due under a compulsory social insurance scheme providing maternity benefits and any
tax based upon payrolls which is raised for the purpose of providing such benefits shall, whether paid both by
the employer and the employees or by the employer, be paid in respect of the total number of men and
women employed by the undertakings concerned, without distinction of sex.
8. In no case shall the employer be individually liable for the cost of such benefits due to women employed by
him.
Article 5
1. If a woman is nursing her child she shall be entitled to interrupt her work for this purpose at a time or times
to be prescribed by national laws or regulations.
2. Interruptions of work for the purpose of nursing are to be counted as working hours and remunerated
accordingly in cases in which the matter is governed by or in accordance with laws and regulations; in cases
in which the matter is governed by collective agreement, the position shall be as determined by the relevant
agreement.
Article 6
While a woman is absent from work on maternity leave in accordance with the provisions of Article 3 of this
Convention, it shall not be lawful for her employer to give her notice of dismissal during such absence, or to
give her notice of dismissal at such a time that the notice would expire during such absence.
Article 7
1. Any Member of the International Labour Organisation which ratifies this Convention may, by a declaration
accompanying its ratification, provide for exceptions from the application of the Convention in respect of--
(a) certain categories of non-industrial occupations;
(b) occupations carried on in agricultural undertakings, other than plantations;
(c) domestic work for wages in private households;
(d) women wage earners working at home;
(e) undertakings engaged in the transport of passengers or goods by sea.
2. The categories of occupations or undertakings in respect of which the Member proposes to have recourse
to the provisions of paragraph 1 of this Article shall be specified in the declaration accompanying its
ratification.
3. Any Member which has made such a declaration may at any time cancel that declaration, in whole or in
part, by a subsequent declaration.
4. Every Member for which a declaration made under paragraph 1 of this Article is in force shall indicate
each year in its annual report upon the application of this Convention the position of its law and practice in
respect of the occupations or undertakings to which paragraph 1 of this Article applies in virtue of the said
declaration and the extent to which effect has been given or is proposed to be given to the Convention in
respect of such occupations or undertakings.
5. At the expiration of five years from the first entry into force of this Convention, the Governing Body of the
International Labour Office shall submit to the Conference a special report concerning the application of
these exceptions, containing such proposals as it may think appropriate for further action in regard to the
matter.
Article 8
The formal ratifications of this Convention shall be communicated to the Director-General of the International
Labour Office for registration.
Article 9
1. This Convention shall be binding only upon those Members of the International Labour Organisation whose
ratifications have been registered with the Director-General.
2. It shall come into force twelve months after the date on which the ratifications of two Members have been
registered with the Director-General.
3. Thereafter, this Convention shall come into force for any Member twelve months after the date on which
its ratifications has been registered.
Article 10
1. Declarations communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office in accordance with
paragraph 2 of article 35 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation shall indicate --
a) the territories in respect of which the Member concerned undertakes that the provisions of the Convention
shall be applied without modification;
b) the territories in respect of which it undertakes that the provisions of the Convention shall be applied
subject to modifications, together with details of the said modifications;
c) the territories in respect of which the Convention is inapplicable and in such cases the grounds on which it
is inapplicable;
d) the territories in respect of which it reserves its decision pending further consideration of the position.
2. The undertakings referred to in subparagraphs (a) and (b) of paragraph 1 of this Article shall be deemed to
be an integral part of the ratification and shall have the force of ratification.
3. Any Member may at any time by a subsequent declaration cancel in whole or in part any reservation made
in its original declaration in virtue of subparagraph (b), (c) or (d) of paragraph 1 of this Article.
4. Any Member may, at any time at which the Convention is subject to denunciation in accordance with the
provisions of Article 12, communicate to the Director-General a declaration modifying in any other respect
the terms of any former declaration and stating the present position in respect of such territories as it may
specify.
Article 11
1. Declarations communicated to the Director-General of the International Labour Office in accordance with
paragraph 4 or 5 of article 35 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation shall indicate
whether the provisions of the Convention will be applied in the territory concerned without modification or
subject to modifications; when the declaration indicates that the provisions of the Convention will be applied
subject to modifications, it shall give details of the said modifications.
2. The Member, Members or international authority concerned may at any time by a subsequent declaration
renounce in whole or in part the right to have recourse to any modification indicated in any former
declaration.
3. The Member, Members or international authority concerned may, at any time at which the Convention is
subject to denunciation in accordance with the provisions of Article 12, communicate to the Director-General
a declaration modifying in any other respect the terms of any former declaration and stating the present
position in respect of the application of the Convention.
Article 12
1. A Member which has ratified this Convention may denounce it after the expiration of ten years from the
date on which the Convention first comes into force, by an Act communicated to the Director-General of the
International Labour Office for registration. Such denunciation should not take effect until one year after the
date on which it is registered.
2. Each Member which has ratified this Convention and which does not, within the year following the
expiration of the period of ten years mentioned in the preceding paragraph, exercise the right of denunciation
provided for in this Article, will be bound for another period of ten years and, thereafter, may denounce this
Convention at the expiration of each period of ten years under the terms provided for in this Article.
Article 13
1. The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall notify all Members of the International Labour
Organisation of the registration of all ratifications and denunciations communicated to him by the Members
of the Organisation.
2. When notifying the Members of the Organisation of the registration of the second ratification
communicated to him, the Director-General shall draw the attention of the Members of the Organisation to
the date upon which the Convention will come into force.
Article 14
The Director-General of the International Labour Office shall communicate to the Secretary-General of the
United Nations for registration in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations full
particulars of all ratifications and acts of denunciation registered by him in accordance with the provisions of
the preceding Articles.
Article 15
At such times as may consider necessary the Governing Body of the International Labour Office shall
present to the General Conference a report on the working of this Convention and shall examine the
desirability of placing on the agenda of the Conference the question of its revision in whole or in part.
Article 16
1. Should the Conference adopt a new Convention revising this Convention in whole or in part, then, unless
the new Convention otherwise provides:
a) the ratification by a Member of the new revising Convention shall ipso jure involve the immediate
denunciation of this Convention, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 12 above, if and when the new
revising Convention shall have come into force;
b) as from the date when the new revising Convention comes into force this Convention shall cease to be
open to ratification by the Members.
2. This Convention shall in any case remain in force in its actual form and content for those Members which
have ratified it but have not ratified the revising Convention.
Article 17
The English and French versions of the text of this Convention are equally authoritative.