When wages arrive late: the calendar the Labour Law sets and the path to recover them
A driver calls the office of lawyer Ali Barakat in Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, and says the last two months have gone by without pay. The first thing the office opens is not a complaint form. It is the calendar in Chapter Seven of Labour Law No. 37 of 2015, especially articles 53 to 61, read with articles 157 and 166 on where a claim is taken. The questions are simple: when did the wage become due, how long has the delay lasted, and what paper proves it?
The calendar while the contract is still running
Article 41 requires the employer to settle the worker’s pay in line with the Law. “Wage”, under article 1, covers every sum due to the worker, in money or in kind, as the return for the work, and allowances and overtime pay sit inside that definition.
Money wages are settled in Iraqi currency, unless the contract itself says otherwise. A cheque or a bank transfer is allowed where a collective agreement or an arbitral decision provides for it, or where the worker has agreed in writing and no such agreement or decision exists. The worker may cancel that authorisation at any moment (art. 53).
The due date itself is fixed by the same article. If pay is weekly, it falls due when that week closes; if it is monthly, when the month closes. It is handed over at the place of work, or at whichever site is closest to it. The text allows the payment to lag by no more than five days. Promissory notes, vouchers, or any paper that stands in for Iraqi currency — or for what the contract has agreed — may not be used instead. The fifth clause of the same article requires equal pay for a woman and a man doing work of equal value.
The sum is handed to the worker in person. It may also go into a bank account the two sides have agreed in writing, or to a person the worker has authorised (art. 54). If the worker dies, whatever is still due is paid to the successors as the law provides. The employer may not fence in how the worker uses the wage, and may not force the worker to purchase goods the business makes or imports (art. 55).
Before the contract is made, the worker must be told the elements of the wage, especially allowances, the method of calculating overtime, deductions and the times of payment, and must be given a detailed written statement whenever the wage is paid (art. 59).
An example. A shop pays monthly. March ends on a Monday. The wage for March is due at the end of that month, and the five-day limit runs from then. A transfer that arrives on the following Saturday is still within the limit; a transfer that arrives in the second week of April is not.
After the contract has ended
Once the employment contract ends, the outstanding pay is calculated and settled starting the day after the ending. If it is the worker who ended the relationship, that outstanding pay is settled within seven days of leaving (art. 60). Delay after the relationship has ended is read from this rule, and article 53 continues to govern the times of payment while the contract remains in force.
What a signature or a release does not wipe out
Any waiver of the wages due to the worker under the Law is void, and those wages may be attached only within the limits the text draws (art. 56). Article 14 likewise voids a waiver by the worker of any right conferred by the Labour Law. A release signed in a hurry, therefore, does not extinguish a wage that was already due.
The employer keeps a wage book that also records overtime, with no blanks, crossings-out or inserted words, and labour inspectors at the Ministry may examine it (art. 61). Only a signed entry in that book settles the employer’s wage debt, and a signature with no reservation noted does not give up any other right of the worker. Deductions the Law permits are the subject of permitted wage deductions. Anything that falls outside those deductions remains a wage debt.
The duty to pay the wage is part of the employer’s duties set out in the employer’s legal duties to the worker. If the employer breaches that duty, the worker may end the contract unilaterally without prior notice (art. 49), as well as claiming what remains of the wage. Ending the contract on that ground does not take the place of recovering the outstanding sum.
Taking the wage claim to the department and then to court
A wage dispute is a dispute over an existing right consisting in the application of the Labour Law. Either party may refer it to the Department of Employment and Loans for a decision within fourteen days (art. 157), and then resort to the Court of Labor if no resolution is reached or a party is not satisfied with the department’s decision. The Court of Labor has jurisdiction over that claim (art. 166). The worker who sues is exempt from court charges, and the claim is treated as expedited. A judgment of the court may be challenged in the manner set out in cassation in labour disputes. How a dispute is first taken to the department is explained in referring a labour dispute to the department before court.
The file is read from the employment contract, from the wage statement, from the wage register, and from the length of the delay after the time limit fixed by article 53 or article 60. The office follows this reading from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, and can be reached on +964 770 848 7526.
Legal basis and sources
Frequently asked questions
What is the longest delay allowed while the contract remains in force?
No more than five days after the week closes, if pay is weekly, or after the month closes, if pay is monthly (art. 53). The sum is handed over at the place of work, or at whichever site is closest to it.
If the contract has ended, when are outstanding wages to be paid?
Starting the day after the ending, and if the worker ended the relationship, within seven days of leaving (art. 60).
May the worker waive delayed wages in a release?
Any waiver of the wages due under the Law is void (art. 56), read together with article 14, which voids a waiver by the worker of any right conferred by the Labour Law.
Where is a claim filed if wages are delayed?
The dispute is first referred to the Department of Employment and Loans under article 157 where that article so requires, and then to the Court of Labor under article 166. A worker who sues is exempt from court charges at all stages.
Related topics and articles
- 01An employer’s duties to staff in Iraq, arranged by when they fall dueA timeline of the private-sector employer’s legal duties in Iraq: before hiring, on every payday, every working day, every year, and when the job ends, with the articles behind each.
- 02Permitted deductions from a worker’s wageLawful wage deductions and the twenty and thirty per cent caps under article 57 of the Labour Law, not applying to legal alimony.
- 03When a job ends in Iraq: who ends it, on what ground, and what followsA practical map of ending a private-sector employment contract in Iraq: what ends it automatically, when the employer or the worker may end it, barred grounds, and the challenge deadline.
- 04End-of-service entitlements under Labour Law No. 37 of 2015The end-of-service gratuity under Labour Law 37/2015: the two-week formula, the statutory exceptions, and how it differs from benefits under Law 18/2023.
- 05Which labour and social-security rules apply in the governorates and in the Kurdistan Region?The reach of Labour Law 37/2015 and Law 18/2023 in the governorates not organised in a region, and how work is organised in the Kurdistan Region.