Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1990, published 77th ILC session (1990)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Nicaragua (Ratification: 1934)

1. Freedom of workers in the service of the State to leave their employment. In previous comments, the Committee requested the Government to provide information on the situation of civil servants, members of the national army, of the Sandinist police force and other armed bodies, particularly in respect of their freedom to leave the service on their own initiative after a reasonable time, either at regular intervals or with previous notice. The Committee noted that the Labour Legislation Division of the Ministry of Labour had prepared a draft to govern the employment of state servants excluded from the scope of the Labour Code (section 9(2)).

The Committee notes from the Government's report that the above draft has not yet been adopted, and therefore requests the Government to continue providing information on the matter and to send a copy of the law once it has been adopted.

2. In earlier comments, the Committee has repeatedly indicated the need to delete from a forthcoming edition of the Police Regulations Chapters XV and XVI of Title III and clause 22 of section 521, which have already been repealed by section 369 of the 1944 Labour Code, and the need to repeal or amend sections 29, 32 to 38, 522, clause 8, 533, clauses 3, 6, 20 and 24, 545, clause 13 and 575 of the Police Regulations, under which sentences involving compulsory labour can be imposed by decision of police magistrates; and also the Act of 17 July 1948 on powers of police magistrates, who are officials of the Executive, to pronounce sentences involving compulsory labour. The Committee has also referred to the Act respecting the judicial functions of the Sandinist police force, approved by Decree No. 559 of 25 October 1980 (Official Gazette No. 253 of November 1980) which confers on this body of police, coming under the Ministry of the Interior, judicial competence to apply the police laws and regulations, a competence to be exercised by examining magistrates of the police force.

The Committee notes that, according to the Government's report, the Ministry of Labour is continuing to press for the reforms but that no decision has yet been taken.

The Committee again points out, as it does in paragraphs 94 to 96 of its General Survey of 1979 on the Abolition of Forced Labour, that work can be exacted only as a consequence of a conviction in a court of law and that compulsory labour imposed by the administrative authorities or other non-judicial bodies is not compatible with the Convention.

The Committee has been raising this matter in its comments for many years, and therefore hopes that the Government will rapidly take the necessary measures to amend or repeal the above sections of the Police Regulations and to ensure that police magistrates and examining magistrates of the police force may on no account impose sanctions involving the obligation to work.

3. The Committee asked the Government to provide a copy of the Act of 1958 to establish a compulsory social service.

4. The Committee takes note of the Regulations of the Academic Regime and of the Regulations of the Movement of Student-Assistants of March 1987 provided by the Government.