Career Advice

PART XIV – FORCED LABOUR

Prohibition of forced labour
 A person shall not be required to perform forced labour.
 It is an offence for an employer to exact  or cause to be exacted, or permit to be exacted, for his or her benefit forced labour from any worker.
Any employer convicted of an offence under subsection (2) is liable to a fine not exceeding 250 penalty units.

Interpretation of “forced labour”
In this Part “forced labour” means work or service that is exacted from a person under threat of a penalty and for which that person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily, but does not include

• labour required as a result of a sentence or order of a court;
• labour required of a member of a disciplined force or service as his or her duties;
• labour required during a period when the country is at war or in the event of an emergency or calamity that threatens life and well-being of the community, to the extent that the requirement of the labour is reasonably justifiable in circumstances of a situation arising or existing during that period for the purpose of dealing with the situation; or
• labour reasonably required as part of normal communal or other civic obligations.