Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1998, published 87th ILC session (1999)

In its previous comments, the Committee noted that section 293(1) of the Penal Code provides for penalties of imprisonment when three or more civil servants abandon their work, even in the form of resignation and if it is by a common accord among them in view of realising a common objective. Under section 297, the provision is also applicable to certain persons who are not civil servants.

Provisions such as these are not, in the Committee's view, compatible with Article 1, paragraph 1, and Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention, which prohibit "all work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered himself voluntarily". The situation contemplated in the above-mentioned provisions, in preventing persons from abandoning work or resigning under threat of imprisonment, effectively results in such persons being forced to continue working.

The Committee notes that the Government's repeated statement that sections 293 and 297 are not applied in practice. In order to bring the legislation into full conformity with the Convention, the Committee invites the Government to take the necessary measures to amend or repeal sections 293 and 297 of the Penal Code. It asks the Government to provide information on any steps taken or contemplated on that matter.