Technically it seems to be (and I only learned this word a couple of hours ago) a Corvee:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corvee

"Corvée is labour, often but not always unpaid, that persons in power have authority to compel their subjects to perform, unless commuted in some way such as by a cash payment; sometimes this was an option of the payer, sometimes of the payee, and sometimes not an option."

"Corvée has existed in modern and ancient Egypt, ancient Rome, China and Japan, France in the 1600s and 1700s, Incan civilization, and Portugal's African colonies until the mid 1960s"

Impossible. The Irony gods would destroy us for surpassing them.