When a job ends in Iraq: who ends it, on what ground, and what follows

When someone calls the Law Office of Ali Barakat in Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, and says “I’ve been let go”, our first question is not “how much are you owed?” It is “who ended the relationship, on what ground, and on what date were you told?” Those three questions shape the whole route, because Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 does not treat every ending in the same way. This page lays the subject out the way we arrange a file: first what ends the contract without anyone deciding, then what the employer may do, then what the worker may do, then the reasons that make a dismissal void, and finally the calendar for objecting.

Door one: endings neither side decides

Certain events bring the contract to a close by themselves (art. 43, first paragraph). The main ones are:

• The term runs out or the task is done. A fixed-term contract ends with its term, and a contract for a defined piece of work ends when the work is complete.
• A written agreement to part. The text requires writing, so a spoken understanding about an “amicable ending” is not enough on its own.
• The worker dies. His family then receives two full months’ pay, provided he had completed a year of service.
• Imprisonment for more than a year under a final judgment. If the sentence is shorter, the worker goes back to work, but receives no pay for the days spent in detention or prison.
• The employer dies, where the employer’s person was the reason for the contract and it cannot be carried on with the heirs.
• The business is wound up, by a final court judgment or by the owners’ choice, subject to the limit described below.
• Force majeure.
• Resignation. This is the worker’s own act, but the article lists it here, and we return to it under door three.

The important limit is this: an employer may not shut, halt or wind up the business without the approval of the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs (art. 43, third paragraph). An owner who tells staff “we have closed, your contracts are over” without that approval is heading into a dispute, not relying on a valid ground.

Door two: when may the employer end the contract?

The grounds are a closed list in the second paragraph of article 43. In a file we group them in three:

Health or age grounds: an illness that keeps the worker away for six months without recovery, or a disability of three quarters of total incapacity or more, each proved by an official medical certificate; or reaching retirement age, with the worker’s end-of-service benefit preserved under the Workers’ Pension and Social Security Law.

Business grounds: working conditions that require the operation to be scaled down. This too depends on the Minister’s approval.

Conduct grounds: breach of the duties in the contract; assuming a false identity or producing a forged document; failing to show acceptable competence during probation; or a grave error that caused heavy loss to the work, the staff or production, which must be established by a final judicial decision.

In every one of these cases the worker must receive written notice of not less than thirty days. Without notice, he is owed compensation in its place (art. 44). That compensation is one thing and the end-of-service benefit is another, and the two should not be merged in a claim.

An example from practice: a company wants to let an employee go because he is “no longer a good fit”. That phrase is not a ground under article 43. If the real point is weak performance during probation, that is a listed ground. If probation is over, the company has to find another ground on the list or reach a written agreement with the employee.

Door three: when may the worker leave?

Ordinary resignation: the worker tells the employer at least a month ahead. A worker who leaves suddenly, or before the end of the agreed term, owes the employer the equivalent of the pay for the notice period or what remains of it (art. 43, first paragraph, item h).

Leaving at once without notice (art. 49): where the employer breaks a duty owed under the Law, the internal work rules or the contract itself; where the employer commits an act amounting to a felony or misdemeanour against the worker or a member of his family, at work or outside it; or where a serious danger to the worker’s safety or health exists, the employer knows of it and does nothing to remove it. In these cases the worker may ask the Service-Termination Committee or the court for compensation at the level to which article 48, second paragraph, item b refers.

An example: a workshop worker keeps asking for an exposed machine to be fixed, and management knows and does nothing. Walking out in that situation rests on article 49, provided he keeps something that proves management knew, such as a message or a written request.

Reasons that can never support a dismissal

Article 48 protects a worker against dismissal where the real motive is: union membership or union activity outside working hours, or inside them with written permission; seeking or holding the role of workers’ representative; a complaint or lawsuit brought against the employer; taking statutory leave; discrimination in employment and occupation; or a temporary absence for an illness or accident that is officially documented. A dismissal built on any of these is void. The committee or court may order the worker back with pay for the past period, or award fair compensation if return is not possible or the worker does not ask for it.

The objection calendar: thirty days that do not come back

• Day one: the date the worker is notified that his service has ended. The count starts here.
• Within thirty days: the worker chooses one route only: the Service-Termination Committee formed under the Minister’s instructions, or the labour courts directly (art. 46, first paragraph). A worker who misses the period is treated as having waived the challenge, and one who takes a route loses the other.
• After the committee decides: another thirty days to challenge its decision before the Labour Court, counted from notification or from the date it is deemed notified (art. 46, second paragraph).
• Burden of proof: the employer must prove the dismissal was lawful. The worker does not have to prove the opposite (art. 46, third paragraph).

If it turns out the dismissal did not rest on a ground in article 43, the committee or court orders the worker back with full pay for the gap. If return is impossible, the contract ends on the date of the decision with compensation equal to twice the end-of-service benefit. In a business that regularly employs fewer than five workers, the contract may be treated as ended on its actual end date, provided that compensation is paid (art. 47).

How the benefit itself is worked out is on the page on end-of-service entitlements. If the disagreement is about an existing right, such as late wages, there is a route through the Employment and Loans Department first, set out on the page on labour disputes before court. Appeal in cassation against a Labour Court judgment is on the page on cassation principles in labour cases.

What we check first in a termination file

Before any letter goes out, we read four documents side by side: the contract, the termination letter, any internal work rules, and the worker’s pay records. The letter should name a ground that exists in article 43 and carry a date. If notice is due, we check whether it was written and whether it ran for a full month. And for the worker, we check that the thirty-day window is still open before anything else is discussed.

Legal basis and sources

1. Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 (Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4386 of 9/11/2015) — Articles 43–49

Frequently asked questions

Related topics and articles

• 01End-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.
• 02How is a labour dispute taken to the Department before the Court of Labor?Referring a labour dispute to the Department of Employment and Loans and then to the Court of Labor, reading articles 157 and 168 of Law 37/2015 together.
• 03The role of the Federal Court of Cassation and the Labour Cases Panel in labour disputesCassation of a Court of Labor judgment before the Labour Cases Panel of the Federal Court of Cassation, under articles 167 and 168 of Law 37/2015.
• 04Which 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.
• 05What is reviewed in the employment contract, a non-Iraqi's work permit, and social-security enrolment?What is reviewed in an employment file: the written contract, a non-Iraqi's work permit, and social-security enrolment,.

Always check the text in force and its amendments in the official source.

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