Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1999, published 88th ILC session (2000)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Iran (Islamic Republic of) (Ratification: 1957)

1. Article 1, paragraph 1, and Article 2, paragraph 1, of the Convention. With reference to its earlier comments concerning the freedom to leave the service of the State, the Committee notes the Government's explanations relating to sections 60 and 64 of the Civil Servants Code and section 65 of the Employment Regulations for State Companies. The Government indicates that section 64 of the Civil Servants Code does not provide for criteria for the acceptance or non-acceptance of resignation, but rather provides for the right to resign and the right of the employer to accept or reject the resignation, as well as the right of the employee to appeal against rejection of the resignation. The Committee refers in this connection to paragraph 68 of its 1979 General Survey on the abolition of forced labour where it recalled that the effect of statutory provisions preventing termination of employment of indefinite duration by means of notice of reasonable length is to turn a contractual relationship based on the will of the parties into service by compulsion of law, and is thus incompatible with the Convention. The Committee therefore considers that the present section 64 does not conform to the Convention and hopes that appropriate measures will be adopted to bring section 64 of the Civil Servants Code into conformity with the Convention and that the Government will supply information on action taken to this end.

As regards section 65 of the Employment Regulations for State Companies, the Committee notes the Government's statement that this section does not provide for a possibility to reject the resignation. However, the Committee observes that this section makes the resignation effective from the date when the company approves it in writing, whereas an employee is obliged to remain in his/her occupation until the end of the notice period and until the resignation is finally approved by the company. Since there is no provision making the resignation automatically effective upon expiry of the term of notice, it follows from the wording of this section that the company may in effect refuse to give its approval of the resignation. The Committee therefore hopes that the Government will reconsider this section and that the necessary measures will be adopted in order to bring section 65 into conformity with the Convention on this point. It asks the Government to provide, in its next report, information on any progress made in this regard.

2. Article 2, paragraph 2(c). The Committee refers to its general observation under the Convention made in its report to the 87th Session of the International Labour Conference (1999) and requests that the information sought therein will be included by the Government in its next report.