Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2004, published 93rd ILC session (2005)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Dominican Republic (Ratification: 1956)

1. Articles 1 and 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention. Freedom of career members of the armed forces to leave their service. In its previous comments, the Committee noted, from the information provided by the Government, that there were no criteria for the acceptance of the application for resignation which members of the armed forces may make under section 205 of the Organic Act on the armed forces (Act No. 873 of 31 July 1978). In practice, members of the armed forces who do not have the rank of officer sign a contract of engagement in accordance with which they are under the obligation to serve the State for four years (section 32 of the Act) and may therefore leave voluntarily upon completion of each contract. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would indicate whether these members of the armed forces are able to resign before the expiry of their contract. Please provide information on cases in which any such application has been made, the decision taken and, where appropriate, any penalties which could be applied.

2. The Committee would be grateful if the Government would provide information on the comments made by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) relating to the situation of workers in export processing zones who are compelled to work additional hours, often by locking them in their enterprise, and the fact that new workers in these enterprises are not informed of the optional nature of additional hours (the comments were forwarded to the Government in November 2002 and it has not replied to them).