Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2002, published 91st ILC session (2003)

Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) - Belgium (Ratification: 1944)
Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930 - Belgium (Ratification: 2019)

1. The Committee notes with interest the adoption of the Act of 16 March 2000 on the resignation of certain categories of military staff, the termination of the appointment or reappointment of certain military candidates, the determination of the period of active service and the recovery by the State of part of the expenses granted by it for training and part of the salary received during training. The Committee notes in particular:

-  the provisions of section 3 which define and determine the length of the "actual service";

-  the provisions of sections 4-8 which establish the principle that part of the salary received during military training and part of the expenditure on training for certain categories of military personnel must be repaid if the persons concerned are allowed to resign before the end of the period of actual service, the amount to be repaid being proportionate to the uncompleted part of the said period;

-  the provisions of sections 10-13 setting the conditions for the acceptance of resignations and the instances in which resignation is deemed to be contrary to the interests of the service.

The Committee asks the Government to explain what constitutes the "exceptional cases, which must be expressly accounted for by the King or by the authority which He shall designate", referred to in sections 10-13 of the Act, in which resignations may be refused where the period of actual service (i.e. a period of from three to 12 years) has been completed. Please give examples of cases where applications to resign have been refused.

The Committee also asks the Government to state the time limit within which the competent authority must accept or refuse an application to resign. Please provide examples of exemptions under section 8 of the Act from the repayment of training expenses and salaries received during training.

2. The Committee notes the statistical information contained in the Government’s report. It notes that in the period from 1 June 1998 to 31 May 2000 seven applications to resign from officers and 27 from non-commissioned officers were rejected although they met the conditions for acceptance. The Committee asks the Government to state the reasons for these rejections.