Labour inspection and the powers of the inspection committee
The Law Office of Ali Barakat, from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, sets out labour inspection as organised by Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 in the second branch of Chapter Thirteen. The source is the text published in the Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4386, of 9/11/2015, articles 126 to 133. This page stays with the formation of inspection committees and with the powers of entry, examination, and urgent measures. It does not deal with the violation report or the employer’s position after the visit; that has a page of its own.
Who carries out inspection, and how is the committee formed?
Projects and workplaces covered by this Law are subject to labour inspection under the supervision and direction of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, under article 126. The Labour Inspection Section, under article 127, is charged with securing the enforcement of the Law and of instructions issued under it relating to working conditions and the protection of workers and their rights while they work; with giving workers and employers technical information and guidance on the means of implementing legal provisions and international agreements; with informing the Ministry of labour-related violations and abuses not provided for in this Law; and with providing a suitable mechanism for receiving workers’ complaints and informing workers widely how to use it. The Section may prepare a guidance note on how those complaints are submitted, what information they should contain, and how they are delivered to the inspection section in the Department of Employment and Loans. The tasks assigned to labour inspectors must not conflict with their basic duties or affect their impartiality in their relations with workers or employers.
Inspection committees are composed, under article 128, of a chair who is a Ministry official holding the title of labour inspector, and of two representatives: one for the most representative employers and one for the most representative workers. At sites whose circumstances so require, they are accompanied by a person designated by the National Center for Occupational Safety and Health. A labour inspector is appointed only if he or she holds at least a first university degree in a relevant specialism and has passed a training course prepared by the Ministry for that purpose. Before taking up the work, the labour inspector and the workers’ and employers’ representatives take, before the Minister or a person authorised by the Minister, the oath set out in the text, to act with honesty and impartiality and not to disclose professional secrets even after leaving the work. The inspection committee may call on experts who hold scientific qualifications.
Powers of entry, examination, and urgent measures
Under article 129, inspection committees are authorised to enter freely and without prior notice, at any time of day or night, any workplace subject to inspection. They may examine and ask about whatever they consider necessary to confirm compliance with the text. That includes questioning the employer or the project’s workers, individually or in the presence of witnesses, about the application of the Law; inspecting the books, registers, and papers that labour law or its instructions require to be kept, and taking copies or samples of them; and reviewing whether directions issued under the Law have been carried out. They may take samples from the workplace relating to occupational safety and health for analysis, provided the employer or the employer’s representative is notified.
The committee may request the employer in writing to carry out, urgently, either changes within a specified period in structures or mechanical equipment that are necessary to comply with the legal provisions on workers’ safety and health, or urgent measures where there is imminent danger to their safety and health. It may take urgent steps in cases of severe danger that admits of no delay, including stopping work wholly or in part or evacuating the workplace. It must let the employer or the employer’s representative know that it is in the project during the visit, unless it considers that doing so would weaken performance of the assignment.
The internal security forces must meet a request by labour inspection committees for support while they perform their duties, under article 130. Committee members are given a card bearing the Minister’s signature to confirm identity and capacity. The representative keeps it during the assignment and produces it to those concerned when needed.
What is forbidden to the committee? And what periodic reports are made?
Article 131 forbids committee members to derive any benefit, open or hidden, from a project under their supervision, and to disclose secrets they have learned in the course of the assignment, even after they have left the work. Disclosure brings legal accountability. The committee must treat the source of any complaint submitted to it about a violation with complete confidentiality, and must not tell the employer or the employer’s representative that the inspection visit resulted from that complaint, under article 132.
The Department of Employment and Loans and the most representative employers’ and workers’ organisations each prepare, separately, a report every ninety days and submit it to the Ministry, under article 133. The Department issues an annual report containing the regulations and instructions relating to the Inspection Section’s work, the staff of the Section, and statistics on the committees’ work, including workplaces subject to inspection and the number of workers, visits, violations and penalties, industrial accidents, occupational diseases and work injuries, and projects stopped in whole or in part, together with data on prevailing wage levels and proposals for developing inspection work.
The powers of entry and examination are one matter. What follows from the visit report — a warning, a referral to the Court of Labor, or a criminal case — is another, and is explained in The violation report and the employer’s position before inspection. The safety duties that may be the subject of inspection are set out in The employer’s occupational safety and health duties.
Legal basis and sources
Frequently asked questions
Must the employer be warned before an inspection committee enters?
Article 129 authorises the committees to enter freely and without prior notice, at any time of day or night, a workplace subject to inspection. The committee does, however, notify the employer or the employer’s representative of its presence during the visit, unless it considers that such notice may affect the performance of its duties.
Who sits on a labour inspection committee?
Article 128 places the chair with a Ministry official holding the title of labour inspector, together with one representative of the most representative employers and one of the most representative workers, accompanied where the project so requires by a person designated by the National Center for Occupational Safety and Health.
May the committee examine wage records?
Yes, within article 129: the committee may examine any books, registers, or documents that must be kept under the labour laws and instructions, and may take copies or samples of them. The wage register and overtime hours are in any event subject to the supervision of the Ministry’s labour inspectors, under article 61.
Related topics and articles
- 01The violation report and the employer’s position before inspectionThe inspection visit report, the remedy period, the Minister’s warning, and referral of the employer to the Court of Labor under articles 134 and 169.
- 02The employer’s occupational safety and health dutiesEmployer and worker occupational safety duties under articles 113–123 of Labour Law 37/2015, and the role of the National Center.
- 03The establishment’s internal regulations: when they are required and what they must containThe duty of an employer who regularly employs ten or more workers to prepare internal rules under article 136, their contents, approval, and posting.
- 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.