Artikel 71

1. Where this article is applied, the amount of any periodical payment shall be at least equal to the percentage referred to in one of the two following sub-paragraphs for a beneficiary considered alone, or for a beneficiary with dependants, as defined in the schedule appended to this part:
a) for a beneficiary considered alone, the amount shall be at least equal to the percentage of the previous earnings of the beneficiary or the beneficiary's breadwinner in respect of the contingency in question;
b) for a beneficiary with dependants, the said amount increased by the amount of any family allowances, payable during the period covered by the contingency, shall, in respect of the contingency in question, be at least equal to the percentages indicated in the schedule of the sum of the previous earnings of the beneficiary or the beneficiary's breadwinner and of the amount of any family allowances payable to a protected person with the same family responsibilities as the beneficiary.
2. The previous earnings of the beneficiary or the beneficiary's breadwinner shall be determined according to prescribed rules and, where the persons protected or their breadwinners are classified according to their earnings, their previous earnings may be calculated from the basic earnings of the class to which they belonged.
3. A maximum may be prescribed for the amount of the periodical payment or the earnings taken into account for its calculation, provided that it is fixed in such a way that paragraph 1 of this article is complied with where the previous earnings of the beneficiary or the beneficiary's breadwinner are equal to or lower than the wage of a skilled manual worker.
4. The previous earnings of the beneficiary or the beneficiary's breadwinner, the wage of the skilled manual worker, the periodical payment and the family allowances shall be calculated on the same time basis.
5. Where the legislation of a Party that the periodical payments are subject to tax or social security contributions, the previous earnings of the beneficiary or the beneficiary's breadwinner to be taken into account for the purpose of this article shall be:
a) either the gross earnings before any tax or social security contributions, in which case the periodical payment to be compared with these earnings shall be the gross periodical payment before any tax or social security contributions; or
b) the earnings net of any tax or social security contributions, in which case the periodical payment to be compared with these earnings shall be the periodical payment net of any tax or social security contributions.
6. Where the legislation of a Party provides that the periodical payments are subject neither to tax nor to social security contributions, the earnings of the beneficiary or the beneficiary's breadwinner to be taken into account for the purpose of this article may be the amount net of any tax or social security contributions.
7. For the application of this article, a skilled manual worker shall be:
a) a fitter or turner in the mechanical, non-electrical, engineering industry; or
b) a typical skilled manual worker as defined in the provisions of the following paragraph; or
c) a person whose earnings are equal to 125% of the average earnings of all the persons protected.
8. The typical skilled manual worker selected for the purpose of sub-paragraph b of the foregoing paragraph shall be a person in the class comprising the largest number of persons protected in respect of the contingency in question, or of their breadwinners in the branch of industry comprising in turn the largest number of such persons or breadwinners; for this purpose, the international standard industrial classification of all economic activities, adopted by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations at its 7th Session on 27 August 1948 and reproduced, as revised in 1968, in the appendix to this (revised) Code, shall be used, subject to any further revision it may undergo.
9. Where benefit varies according to region, the skilled manual worker may be determined for each region in accordance with paragraphs 7 and 8 of this article.
10. The wage of the skilled manual worker selected in accordance with the provisions of subparagraph a or b of paragraph 7 of this article shall be determined on the basis of the wage for a normal number of hours of work as fixed either by collective agreements, by or in pursuance of national legislation, or by custom, including any cost-of-living allowances; where the wage thus determined differs according to region but the foregoing paragraphs is not applied, the median wage shall be taken.
11. When the payment of invalidity, old-age or survivors' benefit is claimed, the amount of the previous earnings of the claimant or of his breadwinner to be taken into account in calculating the amount of the periodical payments to be made in respect of invalidity, old-age or the death of the breadwinner shall be reviewed, under prescribed conditions, following any appreciable changes in the general level of earnings or in the cost of living.
12. The amount of current periodical payments for invalidity, old-age or the death of the breadwinner and for the contingencies referred to in sub-paragraphs c and d of paragraph 1 of Article 32 shall be reviewed, under prescribed conditions, following appreciable changes in the general level of earnings or in the cost of living.