Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2008, published 98th ILC session (2009)

Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105) - Grenada (Ratification: 1979)

Article 1(c) of the Convention. Disciplinary measures applicable to seafarers. For a number of years, the Committee has been referring to certain provisions of the 1894 United Kingdom Merchant Shipping Act, which was in force in Grenada, under which various breaches of labour discipline by seafarers not endangering the ship or the life or health of persons were punishable with imprisonment (involving an obligation to perform labour) and deserting seafarers might be forcibly returned to their ship to perform their duties. The Committee has noted that under sections 185(b), (c) and 186(a), (b) of the Shipping Act, 1994 (No. 47 of 1994), which repealed the 1894 Act, penalties of imprisonment still may be imposed for breaches of discipline such as disobedience to lawful command, neglect of duty, desertion and absence without leave, and section 191 of the Act provides for the forcible conveyance of deserting seafarers to ships registered in another country, where it appears to the minister that reciprocal arrangements will be made in that country.

The Committee recalls that Article 1(c) of the Convention expressly prohibits the use of any form of forced or compulsory labour as a means of labour discipline. As the Committee repeatedly pointed out, only acts which endanger the ship or the life or health of persons are excluded from the scope of the Convention (see, for example, paragraphs 179–181 of the Committee’s General Survey of 2007 on the eradication of forced labour). The Committee therefore reiterates its hope that the necessary measures will at last be taken with a view to amending the above provisions of the Shipping Act, either by repealing sanctions involving compulsory labour or by restricting their application to the situations where the ship or the life or health of persons are endangered (as is the case, for example, in section 184 of the same Act), so as to bring the legislation into conformity with the Convention. The Committee requests the Government to provide, in its next report, information on progress made in this regard.