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

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Zimbabwe (Ratification: 1998)

The Committee has noted the Government’s reply to its previous comments, as well as the pieces of legislation annexed to the report. However, it repeats its request for copies of the following legislation: the Criminal Law Amendment Act, the Miscellaneous Offences Act, laws governing political parties and associations.

Article 1(d) of the Convention. The Committee previously noted certain provisions of the Labour Relations Act concerning compulsory arbitration and prohibition of any collective job action enforceable with sanctions of imprisonment (under section 112(1) of the Act), which may involve prison labour in virtue of section 76(1) of the Prisons Act (Cap. 7:11) and section 66(1) of the Prisons (General) Regulations, 1996. Referring to its comments on the application of Convention No. 98, likewise ratified by Zimbabwe, the Committee has noted with interest that, under the new section 93(5) of the Labour Relations Act, as amended by the Labour Relations Amendment Act No. 17/2002, recourse to compulsory arbitration is possible only with the agreement of the parties concerned or when conciliation procedures have failed in the essential services. However, the Committee has noted that section 104(2) and (3) of the Labour Relations Act, as amended, not only prohibits collective job actions in essential services and in case of the agreement of the parties to refer the dispute to arbitration, but also provides for other restrictions on the right to collective job action related to procedural requirements, which are equally enforceable with sanctions of imprisonment (involving prison labour), under sections 109(1) and 112(1) of the Act.

The Committee again draws the Government’s attention to the explanations in paragraphs 123-132 of its 1979 General Survey on the abolition of forced labour, in which it pointed out that it is not incompatible with the Convention to impose penalties (even involving an obligation to perform labour) for participation in strikes in essential services in the strict sense of the term (that is, services whose interruption would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population), or for participation in strikes in breach of freely concluded collective agreements, or in the situations of force majeure. However, the Labour Relations Act, as amended, imposes such penalties in a wider range of circumstances, which is not in conformity with the Convention. Besides, the wording of section 102 of the Act allows the minister to declare essential any service, other than that interruption of which would endanger the life, personal safety or health of the whole or part of the population.

The Committee therefore hopes that measures will be taken to ensure that the above provisions imposing restrictions on the right to strike enforceable with sanctions involving compulsory prison labour are limited in scope to essential services in the strict sense of the term, or to the cases of force majeure, or to the situations where the parties concerned agreed to refer the dispute to arbitration, and that no sanctions involving compulsory labour can be imposed for participation in peaceful strikes in other services. It requests the Government to provide, in its next report, information on the progress made in this regard.

Article 1(a). The Committee has noted that penalties or imprisonment (involving compulsory prison labour) may be imposed under various provisions of national legislation in circumstances falling within Article 1(a) of the Convention, namely:

(a)  sections 15, 16, 19(1)(b), (c) and 24-27 of the Public Order and Security Act (Cap. 11:17) (publishing or communicating false statements prejudicial to the State; making any false statement about or concerning the President; performing any action, uttering any words or distributing or displaying any writing, sign or other visible representation that is obscene, threatening, abusive or insulting, intending thereby to provoke a breach of peace; failure to notify the authority of the intention to hold public gathering, violation of the prohibition of public gatherings or public demonstrations, etc.);

(b)  sections 64(1)(c), (d), 72(1)(2) and 80 of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Cap. 10:27) (abuse of freedom of expression; operating a mass media service without a registration certificate; falsification or fabrication of information or contravention of any other provision of the Act).

The Committee points out, referring to the explanations contained in paragraphs 133-140 of its 1979 General Survey on the abolition of forced labour, that the Convention does not prohibit punishment by penalties involving compulsory labour of persons who use violence or incite to the use of violence, armed resistance or an uprising. But sanctions involving compulsory labour are incompatible with the Convention where they enforce a prohibition of the peaceful expression of non-violent views that are critical of government policy and the established political system.

The Committee has noted that the above provisions of national law provide for penal sanctions involving compulsory labour in circumstances defined in terms which are wide enough to give rise to questions about their application in practice. It therefore requests the Government to supply, with its next report, copies of the court decisions which could define or illustrate the scope of these provisions, so as to enable the Committee to ascertain whether they are applied in a manner compatible with the Convention, as well as information on measures taken or contemplated in order to ensure the observance of the Convention in this regard.