Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1991, published 78th ILC session (1991)

1. The Committee refers also to its observation under this Convention and requests the Government to supply information on the effect given in practice to the provisions of Act No. 89-51 of 14 March 1989 respecting national service, and in particular on the proportion of young persons who have to carry out their service in one of the forms set out in section 3 of the Act, which are specified by order of the Secretary-General of the national defence each year, in accordance with section 8 of the Act.

2. In its previous comments, the Committee referred to section 77 of Act No. 83-112 of 12 December 1983 to issue the general conditions of service of employees of the State, of local public communities and of public administrative establishments, under which the resignation of a public servant only takes effect when it is accepted by the chief of the department in question. It also referred to Prime Minister's Circular No. 3 of 31 January 1984 respecting the procedure for applying the provisions of the above Act, under which the absence of a reply from the department regarding a resignation request is equivalent to an implicit decision to reject the resignation. The Committee noted that the public servant may appeal to a joint administrative committee regarding the explicit or implicit rejection of his resignation and that the department may revise its decision following the reasoned opinion given by the joint committee.

The Committee also referred to the particular texts concerning magistrates, members of the armed forces, members of the internal security forces and employees in public industrial and commercial establishments, to whom the Act of 12 December 1983 is not applicable.

The Committee requested the Government to supply information on the effect given in practice to the provisions governing the resignation of these various categories of personnel, and the criteria used by the joint administrative committee in arriving at its opinion and cases of implicit or explicit rejections by the administration of resignation requests.

The Committee notes the Government's indications in its report that this information will be transmitted as soon as it is available. With reference to paragraphs 67-73 of its 1979 General Survey on the Abolition of Forced Labour, the Committee points out that the right of workers to freely chose their employment may not be prejudiced and that legal provisions that prevent workers from terminating their employment by means of notice of reasonable length have the effect of turning a contractual relationship based on the will of the parties into service by compulsion of law and are incompatible with the Convention. The Committee trusts that the Government will supply the information concerned in the very near future.