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

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Algeria (Ratification: 1962)

1. Civic service. The Committee notes that the Government has not provided any information in reply to its comments on this subject. It is therefore bound to reiterate its previous request.

Since 1986, the Committee has been drawing the Government’s attention to the incompatibility with the Convention of sections 32, 33, 34 and 38 of Act No. 84-10 of 11 February 1984 respecting civic service, as amended in 1986, which require persons who have completed a course of higher education or training to perform a period of civic service of between two and four years in order to obtain employment or exercise an occupation.

On this subject, the Government indicated in a previous report that civic service is a statutory period of work performed for a public administration, body or enterprise in local communities by persons submitted to the civic service. It represents the contribution of these persons to the economic, social and cultural development of the country. According to the Government, persons covered by civic service have the same rights and obligations as the workers governed by the legislation respecting the general conditions of service of workers, including the right to receive remuneration from the employing entity in accordance with the law. Furthermore, the years of civic service performed are taken into account for purposes of seniority, promotion and retirement, as well as in the contract period during which the person concerned is bound to a public body by a training contract. Finally, with regard to the incompatibility noted by the Committee, the Government pointed out that persons covered by civic service are assigned exclusively to the specialized branch or discipline in which they were trained.

The Committee took due note of these explanations. However, it also pointed out that under sections 32 and 38 of the Act, refusal to perform civic service and the resignation of the person concerned without acceptable grounds result in their prohibition from exercising an activity on their own account, such as setting up as a trader, craft worker or promoter of a private economic investment, and that any violation is punishable under section 243 of the Penal Code. Similarly, under sections 33 and 34 of the Act, before they engage workers, all private employers are required to satisfy themselves that applicants are not covered by civic service or can produce documentation proving that they have discharged it, and that any private employer knowingly employing a citizen who has evaded civic service is liable to imprisonment and a fine. Therefore, although the persons liable to civic service benefit from working conditions (remuneration, seniority, promotion, retirement, etc.) similar to those of regular public sector workers, they discharge this service under a menace because, in the event of refusal, they are denied access to any professional self-employed activity or to any employment in the private sector, as a result of which civic service falls within the concept of compulsory labour within the meaning of Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention. Furthermore, since it consists of a contribution by the persons concerned to the economic development of the country, this compulsory service violates Article 1(b) of Convention No. 105, which has also been ratified by Algeria.

The Committee again reiterates that forced labour means any work or service which is exacted from any person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not offered her or himself voluntarily. Referring once again to the explanations provided in paragraphs 55 to 62 of its 1979 General Survey on the abolition of forced labour, the Committee trusts that the necessary measures will be taken to repeal or amend the provisions in question in the light of Conventions Nos. 29 and 105 and that the Government will soon be able to report on the measures adopted in this respect.

2. National service. For a number of years, the Committee has been referring to Ordinance No. 74-103, of 15 November 1974, issuing the Code of National Service, under which conscripts are required to contribute to the operation of various economic and administrative sectors. It has also referred to the Order of 1 July 1987, which requires conscripts, after three months of military training, to serve in priority sectors of national activity, and particularly as teachers. The Committee noted that they are also required to perform two, three or four years of civic service (see point 1 above). The Committee recalled that, under the terms of Article 2, paragraph 2(a), of the Convention, compulsory military service is excluded from the scope of the Convention only where conscripts are assigned to work of a purely military character.

The Committee notes the information provided by the Government in its last report on this matter, according to which the civil form of national service has been suspended since 2001 by the government authorities.

While noting this information, the Committee requests the Government to indicate whether Ordinance No. 74-103 and the Order of 1 July 1987 have been repealed or amended so that the law is in conformity with practice and, by the same token, with the provisions of the Convention and, if so, to provide copies of the relevant texts.

3. The Committee is addressing a request directly to the Government on certain other matters.