ARTICLE 24: LABOUR LEGISLATION AND SOCIAL SECURITY
1. The Contracting States shall accord to stateless persons lawfully staying in their territory the
same treatment as is accorded to nationals in respect of the following matters:
(a) In so far as such matters are governed by laws or regulations or are subject to the control of
administrative authorities; remuneration, including family allowances where these form part of
remuneration, hours of work, overtime arrangements, holidays with pay, restrictions on home
work, minimum age of employment, apprenticeship and training, women's work and the work
of young persons, and the enjoyment of the benefits of collective bargaining;
(b) Social security (legal provisions in respect of employment injury, occupational diseases,
maternity, sickness, disability, old age, death, unemployment, family responsibilities and any
other contingency which, according to national laws or regulations, is covered by a social
security scheme), subject to the following limitations:
(i) There may be appropriate arrangements for the maintenance of acquired rights and
rights in course of acquisition;
(ii) National laws or regulations of the country of residence may prescribe special
arrangements concerning benefits or portions of benefits which are payable wholly out of
public funds, and concerning allowances paid to persons who do not fulfil the contribution
conditions prescribed for the award of a normal pension.
2. The right to compensation for the death of a stateless person resulting from employment injury
or from occupational disease shall not be affected by the fact that the residence of the beneficiary
is outside the territory of the Contracting State.
3. The Contracting States shall extend to stateless persons the benefits of agreements concluded
between them, or which may be concluded between them in the future, concerning the
maintenance of acquired rights and rights in the process of acquisition in regard to social
security, subject only to the conditions which apply to nationals of the States signatory to the
agreements in question.
4. The Contracting States will give sympathetic consideration to extending to stateless persons so
far as possible the benefits of similar agreements which may at any time be in force between such
Contracting States and non-contracting States.
I.
Background & Commentary
The wording of Article 24 of the 1954 Convention is identical to Article 24 of the 1951 Refugee
Convention. Like Article 23 of this Convention, Article 24 contains a “lawfully staying”
requirement in order for stateless persons to enjoy the rights therein.396
396
See Article 15 or the Annex for the definition of “lawfully staying” for the purposes of the 1954 Convention.
Canada has the same reservation to Article 24 of the 1951 Refugee Convention as it does Article 23 of that
Convention with regards to its interpretation of the phrase “lawfully staying”. For the purpose of the analysis in this
report, the definition identified in the travaux préparatoires of the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1954
Convention is applied. See Declarations and Reservations to the 1951 Convention, supra note 329.
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