Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2007, published 97th ILC session (2008)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Australia (Ratification: 1932)
Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 - Australia (Ratification: 2022)

Article 1(1) and Article 2(1) and (2)(c) of the Convention. 1. Work of prisoners for private enterprises. The Committee has noted from the Government’s 2004 report that, under section 33 of the Corrections Act 1997 (Tasmania), a prisoner may be directed to work within or outside of the prison precincts, refusal to comply with such direction to work being considered as a prison offence under Schedule 1 of the Act. Referring to point 5 of its observation under the Convention, the Committee requests the Government to indicate, in its next report, whether prisoners may be directed to outside work for private enterprises and, if so, whether their free and informed consent to work for private companies is ensured, as well as further guarantees and safeguards covering the essential elements of a free labour relationship, such as wages and social security, etc.

2. Sentence of community work. The Committee has noted from the Government’s 2004 report that, under the Sentencing Act 1997 (Tasmania), a court may issue a Community Service Order (CSO), under which an offender must perform some work or other activity in the community, as part of a community corrections programme, under the direction of a probation officer or supervisor. Community corrections programmes may include, inter alia, work for the benefit of an organization that does not seek to provide a pecuniary benefit for its members. Non-compliance with the terms of a CSO may result, on application, in the court varying or cancelling the CSO and imposing an alternative sentence for the offence that gave rise to the original CSO. The Committee notes from the Government’s 2006 report that section 39 of the Sentencing Act 1995 (Western Australia) contains similar provisions.

The Committee draws the Government’s attention to Article 2(2)(c) of the Convention, which expressly prohibits that convicted persons 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 work of convicted persons does not extend to their work for private parties, even under public supervision and control. The Committee therefore requests the Government to indicate, in its next report, whether measures are taken or envisaged to ensure that persons performing community work under CSO are not hired to or placed at the disposal of private individuals, companies or associations without their consent and, if so, how the voluntary consent of the persons concerned to work for a private user of community work is guaranteed. Please also supply information on any provisions governing a sentence of community work in other jurisdictions and on the application of these provisions in practice.

Article 1(1) and Article 2(1) and (2)(d). Powers to call up labour in cases of emergency. The Committee has noted from the Government’s 2004 report that the provision of section 2(1) of the State Transport Act 1938 (Tasmania), concerning a declaration of a state of emergency (which grants to the Governor in Council powers to call up labour) is worded in terms which are wide enough to permit its application in circumstances not limited to the cases of emergency in the strict sense of Article 2(2)(d) of the Convention. It has also noted that the Supreme Court of Queensland in Dean v. Attorney General of Queensland ([1971] Qd.R.391), in its interpretation of this provision, found that it was not limited to the category of “natural catastrophes and calamities” and gave greater scope to the situations in which a state of emergency may be declared. The Committee therefore hopes that the Government will adopt the necessary measures in order to limit the above provision to the cases of emergency in the strict sense of the term, as described in Article 2(2)(d) (that is, to the events of war or of a calamity or threatened calamity) and that, pending the adoption of such measures, the Government will provide information on the application of section 2(1) of the State Transport Act 1938, in practice.