2. The person can freely choose their occupation and profession.

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1 LATENT FORMS OF FORCED LABOR Elena Volk PhD, Associate Professor, Professor of Labour and Corporate Law Department of International University MITSO The right to work is one of the fundamental human rights. This right is enshrined in numerous international treaties, also in constitutions and other legal acts of individual states. We should distinguish between the right to work and freedom of work. Freedom of work should be regarded as a principle, as an idea, which is based on the implementation of the employee's subjective right to work. Freedom of work in the labour law of Belarus is not the norm-principle. Freedom of work is derived from the number of articles of the Constitution and the Labour Code of Belarus. It is necessary to determine the content of the freedom of work in order to analyze the level of implementation of the freedom of work of citizens. Based on the analysis of literature, national regulations and international documents can be concluded that the freedom of work is consisting on next points: 1. Everyone is free to use their ability to work, i.e. to exercise free choice of the type of life (to work or not). 2. The person can freely choose their occupation and profession. 3. The person may exercise their ability to work independently or on the basis of a contract (to do business or to enter into the labour or civil contract). 4. Everyone is freely to choose their place of work, including work abroad. Freedom of work is closely related to the prohibition of forced labour, but they are considered as separate principles. International documents reinforce the definition of forced labour, as well as cases that are not related to forced labour. It should also be emphasized that not only forced but also compulsory labour are prohibited in the international treaties. However, it must be noted that citizens of various states still face forced labour. It can provide some relationship having signs of forced labour in the case of the Republic of Belarus.

2 1. The contract system of employment. An employment agreement and employment contract could be concluded between the employee and the employer in Belarus. The employment agreement may be concluded for an indefinite period and for a specified period. As a general rule a fixed-term employment agreement may be concluded only if the work is intermittent, urgent. The contract is a type of a fixed-term employment agreement, which has the peculiarities as compared with the general norms of labour legislation. For example, an employee can not dismiss at his own will; the additional dismissal reasons are provided and some additional cases of bonus deprivation of employees are established in this case. The employer has the right to make employment contracts with all workers, even if the work is of a permanent nature. There are only a few exceptions to this rule. At the same time contracts are concluded for a period no less than one year but no more than 5 years. Upon the expiration of the contract term, the employer has the right to dismiss an employee without explanation. According to official statistics, more than 80% of employees in Belarus hold a contract. In this case, their freedom of labour is limited by the fixed-term nature of the contract and the impossibility to resign at own will. 2. Forced employment of persons who are obliged to reimburse to the state the expenses for the care of minor children given social security. It is referred to the parents deprived of parental rights, and in respect of whom was made a decision about the removal of children (Presidential Decree 18 dated "On additional measures of the state protection of children in problem families". Unemployed obligors are subject to compulsory employment pursuant to court order. If the wage rate of employed person does not allow to discharge obligations for reimbursement of the expenses for the care of minor children within six months, then these persons are also subject to compulsory recruitment for a new job. Labour relations with these employees have a number of peculiarities: 1) the obligors are provided basic labour leave of 7 calendar days (instead of 24 days), while all other labour and social holidays are not provided, except for maternity leave and child care until the age of three years (Art. 8 para. 14 of Decree 18); 2) for the improper performance of employment duties, violation of labour discipline, the employer can transfer them to another job without their consent, though it is necessary to obtain the agreement of the Labour, Employment and Social protection Body (part. 3, Art. 30 Labour Code of Belarus) and other.

3 Of course, in this case the protection of rights of minor children is given higher priority, and employment of obligors is one of the ways to implement the duties of parents in order to maintain their minor children. However, the employed obligor becomes an employee and acquires corresponding rights and obligations under the employment relationship. Infringement of rights of an employee is unacceptable. 3. Placement of graduates of state educational institutions. Graduates of higher education institutes, secondary specialized colleges and vocational-technical schools, who had full-time study from the republican and (or) local budgets are placed on a job. The order of graduate placement is controlled by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers on "On some issues of placement, replacement, job placement, subsequent job placement of graduates, reimbursement of state expenses on training and target training of specialists, workers, employees". Education Code of the Republic of Belarus defines social protection of graduates and the needs of branches of economy and social sphere for specialists, workers, employees as the main purpose of graduate placement. However, we consider the purpose of social protection of graduates (in providing the first job) does not fully corresponds to Art. 49 of the Constitution, which states that "accessibility and freeof-charge character of general secondary education and vocational-technical education are guaranteed. Secondary specialized and higher education are available to everybody in accordance with the capabilities of each individual. Everyone can receive appropriate free education in public educational institutions on a competitive basis. On the one hand free education is guaranteed, on the other hand, Resolution 821 has stated that if a graduate has not completed work on placement during a specified period, he or she must reimburse a sum spent on his education. 4. Involvement of the unemployed in paid public works. Public works are generally available types of work which usually do not require additional training and have socially useful significance (environmental, agricultural work, the collection and recycling of secondary raw materials and waste, and other). Implementation of these works is an indispensable condition for receiving unemployment benefits. In case of non-fulfillment without good reason the monthly rate of 10 days, an unemployed person is suspended the payment of unemployment benefit to him. The unemployment benefit is a social assistance to unemployed persons and in our opinion its payment should not be conditional on the execution of public works.

4 5. Features of labour regulation, established by Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus dated The changes affected all employees, including senior staff, of both governmental and private institutions. This Decree contains provisions that do not conform to the norms of the Labour Code of the Republic of Belarus. In particular, the Decree 5 introduced an additional measure of disciplinary punishment full or partial deprivation of additional incentive payments for up to 12 months. It is established that disciplinary measures can be applied not only by employers alone, but also on the written request of a state body (organization). In such a situation, the employer is to apply measures of punishment to the workers (on the basis of this norm), while in accordance with Art. 198 Labour Code of Belarus the selection and application of corrective actions is the right of employer. On revealing violations committed by an employee, which caused or are likely to result in damage to the organization, the employer is entitled to dismiss him from work. It should be remembered that the salary for the period of suspension shall not be paid, however, the Decree 5 does not specify for how long the employee can be dismissed. Decree 5 introduces new grounds for terminating an employment agreement (contract). For example, a breach of discipline, which caused damage to the organization in excess of three average monthly wage of workers of Belarus. However, it should be noted that Art. 35 of the Labour Code of Belarus contains an exhaustive list of grounds for termination of employment agreement (contract). We believe that the practice of fixing the grounds of termination of the employment agreement (contract) in other regulations, except the Labour Code, is abnormal. Without deep analyzing of all debating points of Decree 5, it should be stressed that it unreasonably tightened labour relations: restricted workers' rights, restricted the rights of employers by more flexible management of relations with employees, expanded state interference in the activities of private organizations in the field of labour relations. 6. On 1 July 2016 the Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Alternative Service" dated 4 June 2015 comes into force. In this regard, the Labour Code of the Republic of Belarus will be amended. Art. 14 of the Labour Code lists the types of jobs that are not related to forced labour. From 1 July 2016 on, the implementation of work determined by alternative service will not be considered a forced labour. At the same time, international standards establish that the term forced or

5 compulsory labour shall not include any work or service executed in virtue of compulsory military service (art. 2 of the ILO Convention 29). Also in 2015, the following rule has been introduced in Belarus: if a citizen does not work more than 183 days a year, he is obliged to pay a fee to the state budget. This provision was introduced in order to implement article 56 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus. In Art. 56 of the Constitution establishes the obligation of every citizen to participate in the financing of public expenditure through the payment of state taxes, duties and other payments. In our opinion, freedom of work includes as a positive right to work, and a negative right of a citizen not to work. We consider that this practice, to some extent can be regarded as forced labour. Citizens pay different types of taxes, and not only on income tax. Currently, there is an increasing state regulation of labour relations in the Republic of Belarus; the priority of economic benefits over the rights and freedoms of the worker is observed. As the unemployment rate rises gradually, it becomes very difficult to find a job even for a highly qualified professional. In practice, there are cases when workers are forced to accept unfavorable conditions of employment for fear of losing their jobs. In our opinion, in these examples there are elements of forced labour. In order to improve the legal status of workers state regulation of labour relations should be weakened. It is also necessary to exclude the adoption of normative legal acts, which regulate the same relations in different ways.