Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2016, published 106th ILC session (2017)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Croatia (Ratification: 1991)

The Committee notes the observations made on the 31 August 2016 by the Independent Trade Unions of Croatia (NHS) and the Union of Autonomous Trade Unions of Croatia (UATUC) on the situation of some workers who are not receiving their wages and are compelled to remain employed pending the reimbursement of their wages. The Committee requests the Government to provide comments on this matter. The Committee notes with concern that the Government’s report has not been received. The Committee expects that the next report will contain full information on the matters raised in its previous comments.

Article 25 of the Convention. Penal sanctions for the exaction of forced or compulsory labour. In its earlier comments, the Committee noted that the Government was considering a possibility to revise certain definitions and to improve the existing legal framework, in particular, by imposing more severe punishments for serious offences, including that covered by section 128 of the Penal Code (the illegal compulsion to act against a person’s will, which was applicable to punish the illegal exaction of forced or compulsory labour). The Committee expressed the hope that, in the course of the revision of the Penal Code, particular attention would be given to the effective implementation of Article 25 of the Convention. The Committee takes note of the adoption of a new Penal Code on 21 October 2011. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on penal sanctions imposed for cases of forced labour, specifying which provisions of the Penal Code were used to this end.