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

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Papua New Guinea (Ratification: 1976)

The Committee notes the Government's report.

Article 1, paragraph 1, and Article 2, paragraphs 1 and 2(d), of the Convention. For a number of years the Committee has requested the Government to supply a copy of the internal instructions concerning resignation from the Defence Force. This request deals, in particular, with the freedom of persons in the service of the State to terminate their employment on their own initiative.

The Committee recalls that it has considered that the effect of statutory provisions preventing termination of employment of indefinite duration by means of notice of reasonable length is to turn a contractual relationship based on the will of the parties into service by compulsion of law, and is thus incompatible with the Conventions relating to forced labour. Furthermore, the provisions relating to compulsory military service included in the Forced Labour Convention do not apply to career military service and may not be invoked to deprive persons who have voluntarily entered into an engagement of the right to leave the service in peace time within a reasonable period, either at specified intervals, or with previous notice, subject to the conditions which may normally be required to ensure the continuity of the service (see paragraphs 68 and 72 of the 1979 General Survey on the abolition of forced labour). Thus, the Committee is requesting the above-mentioned internal instructions in order to examine their provisions concerning resignation from the Defence Force as to ascertain their conformity with the Convention. The Committee urges the Government to provide a copy of the internal instructions concerning resignation from the Defence Force with its next report.