Demande directe (CEACR) - adoptée 1999, publiée 88ème session CIT (2000)

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its report.

It notes that the Act on the Employment of Persons Deprived of Liberty, of 28 August 1998, which aims at increasing the employment opportunities of inmates, provides for the creation of enterprises attached to penitentiary institutions (section 3), which may take the form of a state enterprise, or a company limited by shares in which the State has more than 50 per cent of shares, or an agricultural enterprise. The Committee notes that under paragraph 3.1 of Order No. 727 of 26 August 1998, at the request of any convict, the director of the penal institution shall determine conditions of employment, and also notes that under paragraph 4.1 of the said Order, a written acceptance by the convict of employment conditions is required. The Committee further notes that under section 7 of Order No. 727 of 26 August 1998 on specific principles of employing convicts, they may be employed, besides production workshops operated by organizational units of prison services, also in enterprises operating in prisons and in other enterprises, natural persons, including home employment production carried out within custody premises and penal institutions.

The Committee also notes the provisions of Chapter 5 of the Penal Executory Code, of 6 June 1997, which governs the employment of prisoners. It notes, in particular, that inmates are employed on the basis of an order assigning them to a specific job, on the basis of employment contract or other legal ground; that their employment under an employment contract can take place with the consent of the director of a penitentiary institution who defines the conditions of employment; and that labour law provisions concerning hours of work and occupational safety and health are applicable to prison labour (section 121, paragraphs 1, 2 and 5). An inmate can be discharged of the obligation to work if he or she is undergoing training or if it is justified by other reason (section 121, paragraph 4). The Committee further notes that prison labour is remunerated in accordance with a contract concluded by a director of a penitentiary institution or by the inmate, and that the remuneration shall not be less than the statutory minimum wage (section 123 (1)), but that the inmate is entitled, as a general rule, only to 50 per cent of wages remaining after a 10 per cent deduction has been made, the rest being transferred to the State (section 125).

The Committee recalls that, under Article 2, paragraph 2 (c), of the Convention, prisoners must not be hired to or placed at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations. As the Committee has pointed out in paragraphs 112 to 125 of its general report to the 86th Session of the International Labour Conference (1998), only when performed in conditions approximating a free employment relationship can work by prisoners for private companies be held compatible with the explicit prohibition of this Article, this necessarily requires the voluntary consent of the person concerned, as well as further guarantees and safeguards covering the essential elements of a free labour relationship, such as the payment of normal wages and social security, etc.

The Committee therefore asks the Government to indicate, in its next report, how it is ensured that the prisoner in the process of engaging in employment is giving such voluntary consent, especially in the situation when the inmate is employed on the basis of an order assigning him or her to a specific job or on a legal basis other than an employment contract, and to give further details on the guarantees and safeguards established in law and practice (e.g. by supplying copies of rules or regulations or other documentation concerning employment of prisoners, including provisions on conditions of work, social security, etc.).

The Committee also requests that, in providing this information, the Government addresses the issues set out in its general observation on the Convention made in its report to the 87th Session of the International Labour Conference (1999).