Dimensions of industrial relations in India/edited by B. S. Bhir

Part XIII of the Treaty of Versailles was adopted by the Peace Conference on the 11th of April 1919, and so was born the International Labour Organisation. The Preamble to the constitution of the I.L.O. declared inter alia that, "Whereas universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon social justice, and Whereas conditions of exist involving such in justice, hardship and privation to a large number of people as to produce unrest so great that the peace and harmony of the world are imperilled and Whereas also the failure of any nation to adopt humane conditions of labour is an obstacle in the way of other nations which desire to improve the conditions of their own own countries; the High Contracting Parties, moved by sentiments of justice and humanity as well as by the desire to secure the permanent peace of the world, and with a view to attaining the objectives set forth in the Preamble, agreed to the following Constitution of the International Labour Organisation :

"The Conference reaffirms the fundamental principles on which the Organi sation is based and, in particular, that:

(a) Labour is not a commodity;

(b) freedom of expression and of association are essential to sustained

progress;

(c) poverty anywhere constitutes a danger to prosperity everywhere:

(d) the war against want requires to be carried on with unrelenting vigour within each nation, and by continuous and concerted international effort in which the representatives of workers and employers, enjoying equal status with those of Governments, join with them in free discussion and democratic decision with a view to the promotion of the common welfare."
Quest for social justice was thus the main foundation for the Constitution of the I.L.O.