Labour Law No. 37 of 2015: its chapters and the questions they raise
The Law Office of Ali Barakat, from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, sets out the chapters of Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 and the questions they raise. The Law was published in the Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4386, of 9/11/2015, and comes into force ninety days after the date of publication. The page is a reading of the structure of the Law and of the persons to whom it applies, not an article-by-article account that takes the place of the official text.
To whom does the Law apply, and how are the opening chapters read?
Article 3 draws the boundary: every worker in Iraq, and anyone the law treats as one, is covered unless a provision carves them out. Civil servants appointed under the Civil Service Law or their own special statute fall outside it, as do soldiers, police officers and internal security personnel. The definitions in article 1 identify the Ministry as the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Department as the Department of Employment and Loans, and they define a worker, an employer, an employment contract, the wage, labour disputes, collective bargaining, a collective agreement and a foreign worker.
Article 2 gives the statute four aims: to govern dealings between workers, employers and the bodies representing each; to safeguard what each side is owed; to set rules for non-Iraqis working in the country or seeking to; and to give effect to the Arab and international labour conventions Iraq has ratified. Chapter Three sets out the basic principles: work as a right on the basis of equal opportunity and without discrimination; freedom of work; the right to form unions and to bargain collectively; and the elimination of forced labour, child labour and discrimination, under articles 4 to 6. Nobody under fifteen may be employed, under article 7. Everything the statute grants is a floor, and a clause in which a worker signs away one of those rights has no effect, under article 14.
Those keys are read before the chapters on the contract, wages and termination. Social security is a separate statute, Law No. 18 of 2023 on workers' pensions and social security, which governs enrolment and pensions through the department that administers them, and it has its own practice area on this site.
The chapters on the individual relationship: the contract, wages, time and leave
Chapter Four deals with employment and vocational training. Chapter Five organises the work of foreigners: employment without a permit issued by the Ministry is forbidden, under articles 30 to 34, and the detail is on the page Rules on employing non-Iraqis and the page Work permits.
Chapter Six organises the individual employment contract: its conclusion orally or in writing, the particulars of a written contract and the probationary period, under article 37; the distinction between a fixed-term contract and an open-ended contract, under article 38, which has a page of its own; the rights and duties of the parties in articles 41 and 42; and then the ending of the contract, notice, challenge and compensation in articles 43 to 49, which are the subject of the pages Ending an employment contract and End-of-service entitlements.
Chapter Seven deals with wages: the currency, the time of payment, equal pay, the prohibition of a waiver, and the wage register. Delay in payment is set out on the page Delayed wages and the worker's remedies. Chapter Eight deals with working hours, and Chapter Nine with leave, feasts and official holidays; those are the subject of the page Annual leave and overtime. There then follow the chapters on the protection of working women, the protection of juveniles, and the protection of workers in quarries, mines and mineral work. Those are special protective rules, read from their chapters when the file engages them, and they are not exhausted here.
The chapters on collective organisation, supervision and the courts
Chapter Thirteen organises occupational safety and health and labour inspection, and makes the National Centre for Occupational Safety and Health the body that plans safety matters and monitors how they are carried out, under article 113. Chapter Fourteen deals with workplace discipline rules and internal regulations, under article 136, and the detail is on the page What the Law requires of workplace rules. Chapter Fifteen deals with collective agreements and negotiations, and belongs on the page Unions and collective agreements.
Chapter Sixteen deals with collective and individual labour disputes, including referral of a dispute over existing rights to the Department of Employment and Loans and then to the Court of Labor, under article 157. Chapter Seventeen deals with the labour courts: the formation of a Court of Labor in each governorate, its jurisdiction, the Labour Cases Panel in the Court of Cassation, and the means of challenge in articles 167 and 168, set out on the page Cassation in labour disputes. Chapter Eighteen contains general and closing provisions.
This map identifies where a particular question is to be taken in the statute. It does not take the place of reading the article in the official text published in the Iraqi legislation database. In the Kurdistan Region, the arrangements made by the Region's institutions are read alongside this framework, as on the page Federal and Kurdistan Region labour rules. The office follows this reading from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk.
The special-protection chapters: working women, juveniles and miners
These three chapters are easy to skip on a quick read, yet each carries its own penalty.
Working women (articles 84 to 94). Anyone employing even one woman must post the protective rules on the notice board. A pregnant or nursing worker cannot be made to do overtime or work the health authority judges risky for mother or baby, and night work for women is confined to listed situations, with an unbroken daily rest of at least eleven hours. Maternity leave is no less than fourteen weeks on full pay, and the mother may not take paid work elsewhere during it. With the employer's agreement she can take up to a year unpaid to care for a child under one, with the contract suspended for that time. A nursing mother gets two feeding breaks a day totalling no more than an hour, counted as working time. Employers must provide rest areas for women and set up a nursery, alone or jointly with other employers, under the minister's instructions. The chapter does not reach work inside a family where only family members are employed.
Juveniles (articles 95 to 105). The minimum working age is fifteen under article 7, and anyone between that and eighteen is barred from work that endangers health, safety or morals, from a list the ministry reviews periodically. A juvenile may start only after a medical examination confirms fitness for the specific job, repeated at least yearly at no cost to the young worker or the family. Under-sixteens work no more than seven hours a day, with a break of at least an hour so that no stretch exceeds four hours. Annual leave is thirty paid days. The employer keeps a register of juveniles' names, ages and tasks. An employer who hires a juvenile the law does not allow to work still owes the agreed wage and compensation for any injury, fault or not, under article 102.
Quarry and mine workers (articles 106 to 112). The chapter covers searching for, extracting and processing mineral and stone materials. It restricts entry to authorised people, sets a seven-hour working day with no more than eight hours on site except in a temporary emergency, requires the internal work rules and safety instructions to be posted visibly under article 107, and requires protective equipment. Breaches here can lead to imprisonment, under article 112.
Workplace discipline: what an employer can and cannot do
Chapter Fourteen requires an employer who regularly employs ten or more workers to draw up internal rules on hours, pay, safety, discipline and leave, under article 136. It then limits discipline: no penalty more than fifteen days after the employer learns of the breach (article 138), no fines on workers unless a collective agreement says otherwise (article 139), and no penalty before the worker has been heard with a workers' representative present (article 140). Dismissal is possible only in the closed list of article 141, which includes a serious breach causing serious harm and disclosing a work secret on firm evidence. Where a worker harms the employer by neglecting duties, the employer must prove the fault, and compensation is fixed by a court unless the two sides settle amicably, under article 137.
Closing provisions: the work card
Among the general provisions in Chapter Eighteen, labour sections in the regions and governorates, working with employers and unions, issue every worker a free work card on a ministry form, linked to a national database and carrying the social security number, under article 170.
Legal basis and sources
Frequently asked questions
When was Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 published, and when did it come into force?
It was published in the Iraqi Official Gazette, issue 4386, of 9/11/2015, and it comes into force ninety days after the date of publication.
How does this overview read the Law?
It is an educational reading of the Law's chapters and of the questions they raise. The detail is on the topic pages. The official text is in the Iraqi legislation database.
Does the Law apply to a State employee?
No. Article 3 excludes public officials appointed under the Civil Service Law or a special text, and members of the armed forces and of the police and internal security.
Where is a labour dispute taken after these chapters have been read?
To the Department of Employment and Loans and then to the Court of Labor, under articles 157, 165 and 166, with a challenge in cassation under article 168. The detail is on the dispute and cassation pages.
Related topics and articles
- 01When 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.
- 02The 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.
- 03When wages arrive late: the calendar the Labour Law sets and the path to recover themThe calendar for paying wages under articles 53 and 60 of Labour Law No. 37 of 2015, the rule that a waiver of wages due is void, and how a wage claim moves to the department and the Court of Labor.
- 04Before you apply to hire a non-Iraqi: a fitness test and the duties that follow a permitA practical test for an employer before applying to hire a non-Iraqi: the prohibition in the Labour Law, the conditions in Instructions No. 1 of 2026 including the fifty-per-cent ceiling, and the duties that remain after a permit is issued.
- 05End-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.