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

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Netherlands (Ratification: 1933)
Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 - Netherlands (Ratification: 2017)

The Committee has noted the information provided by the Government in reply to its earlier comments. It notes, in particular, the information on measures taken and contemplated to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons for the purpose of exploitation, supplied in response to the Committee’s general observation of 2000, and requests the Government to continue to provide information on the developments in this sphere.

Work of prisoners for private employers. The Committee previously noted the Government’s indications that, as regards work carried out outside penitentiary institutions by detainees who reside in open penitentiary institutions, the contract with the employer is concluded by the institution itself, but the detainees have no terms of employment with the employer concerned. The Government also indicated that persons who reside in an open penitentiary institution and who refuse to work, are returned to a closed institution.

As regards prisoners’ wages, the Committee has noted from the Regulation of 15 October 2002 issued by the Ministry of Justice, as well as from the Government’s explanations in the report, that the level of remuneration for detainees working outside the institution is based on the gross minimum wage as set out on 1 January 2002, 40 per cent of this amount (EU 111.36 per week) is paid to the detainee. However, detainees in an open institution do not come under the social security legislation (though medical expenses are paid by the Ministry of Justice).

The Committee recalls that Article 2(2)(c) of the Convention prohibits that convicted prisoners are hired to or placed at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations, in a sense that the exception from the scope of the Convention provided for in this Article for compulsory prison labour does not extend to work of prisoners for private employers. The Committee again refers in this connection to paragraphs 10 and 11 of its 2001 general observation concerning prison labour, in which it pointed out that, in order to comply with the Convention, the work of prisoners for private companies requires the freely given consent of the workers concerned, without the menace of any penalty in the wide sense of Article 2(1) of the Convention (such as loss of privileges or an unfavourable assessment of behaviour taken into account for reduction of sentence). Furthermore, in the context of a captive labour force having no alternative access to the free labour market, such free consent needs to be authenticated by arm’s length conditions of employment approximating a free labour relationship, such as the existence of a labour contract between the prisoner and the private company and free labour market-oriented conditions regarding wage levels (leaving room for deductions and attachments), social security and safety and health.

The Committee therefore hopes that the necessary measures will be taken to ensure that any work by detainees for private employers be performed under the conditions of a freely consented upon employment relationship. It also requests the Government to continue to provide information regarding conditions of work of detainees who reside in an open penitentiary institution and carry out work outside the institution and to supply a copy of the general terms and conditions governing work carried out by inmates of custodial institutions, to which reference is made in paragraph (h) of the additional clauses of the sample agreement between a penitentiary institution and an employer, annexed to the Government’s report.