Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2001, published 90th ILC session (2002)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Belize (Ratification: 1983)

The Committee notes with regret that no report has been received from the Government. It must therefore repeat its previous observation on the following matters:

Article 1(c) and (d) of the Convention. In comments made for a number of years, the Committee has referred to section 35(2) of the Trade Unions Act (Ch. 238), under which a penalty of imprisonment (involving, by virtue of section 66 of the Prison Rules, an obligation to work) may be imposed on any person employed by the Government, municipal authority or any employer in charge of supplying electricity, water, railway, health, sanitary or medical services or communications or any other service that may by proclamation be declared by the Governor to be a public service, if such person wilfully and maliciously breaks a contract of service, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the probable consequences will be to cause injury or danger or grave inconvenience to the community. The Committee has also noted that, in pursuance of section 2 of the Settlement of Disputes Essential Services Act (Ch. 235), Statutory Instrument No. 92 of 1981 declared the National Fire Service, Postal Service, Monetary and Financial Services (banks, treasury, monetary authority), Airports (civil aviation and airport security services) and the Port Authority (pilots and security services) to be essential services; Statutory Instrument No. 51 of 1988 declared the Social Security Scheme administered by the Social Security Branch an essential service; and Statutory Instrument No. 32 of 1984 declared Revenue Services, including all Revenue Collecting Departments and Agencies of the Government to be essential services.

The Committee noted from the Government’s 1994 report that there have been no steps to bring section 35(2) of the Trade Unions Act into conformity with the requirements of the Convention. It recalls that under Article 1(c) and (d) of the Convention, legislation providing for sanctions involving compulsory labour as a punishment for violations of labour discipline or for having participated in strikes must be repealed. It refers also to the explanations in paragraphs 110, 114 to 116 and 123 of its General Survey of 1979 on the abolition of forced labour. Whilst it notes that there are no recorded penalties of imprisonment imposed under section 35(2), the Committee again expresses the hope that the necessary measures will be taken to bring section 35(2), as well as actual practice, into conformity with the Convention and that meanwhile the Government will provide information on its application in practice, including any cases in which penalties of imprisonment have been imposed under it.

The Committee hopes that the Government will make every effort to take the necessary action in the very near future.