Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Democratic Republic of the Congo (Ratification: 2001)

Other comments on C105

Observation

Direct Request

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Article 1(d) of the Convention. Imprisonment involving an obligation to work imposed as a punishment for participation in strikes. The Committee previously referred to section 326 of the Labour Code, which allows a fine and/or penal servitude of up to six months to be imposed on anyone offending against section 315, which sets forth the conditions for exercising the right to stop work on a collective basis in the event of a labour dispute. In this regard, the Committee recalled that the Convention expressly prohibits the imposition of compulsory labour, including compulsory prison labour, as a punishment for participation in strikes. The Committee noted the Government’s indication in its report on the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), that it agreed to the principle of amending section 326 of the Labour Code, which would be done when the Code is next revised, and that the new provision would specify that the penalties imposed on strikers shall be proportionate to the offence committed and no penalty of imprisonment shall be imposed unless a criminal or violent act has been committed.

The Committee notes that there is no information on this matter in the Government’s report. The Committee expresses the hope once again that the Government will take the necessary steps to amend section 326 of the Labour Code as indicated above in order to align it with Article 1(d) of the Convention.