Types of leave under Iraqi labour law

In briefLabour Law No. 37 of 2015 recognises several kinds of leave rather than one: paid weekly rest and official holidays, annual leave, sick leave, a fixed number of days for family events, a mourning period for an insured widow, one unpaid Hajj leave, leave for public duties, maternity leave and an unpaid childcare leave. Each has its own article, its own condition and its own answer to who pays.

The Law Office of Ali Barakat, in Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, lays out the different kinds of leave found in Labour Law No. 37 of 2015, mainly in its ninth chapter, and pairs each one with its article, its condition and the party that bears its cost. The aim is simple: a worker or an employer should be able to tell which leave is being asked for and on what basis. Annual leave and overtime have their own detailed page in this practice area.

Rest days, feasts and official holidays

The chapter starts with periodic rest. Every week the worker has at least one day off with the full wage, and official feasts and holidays set by law are also days off with full pay, under article 74(1). A worker may be called in on a feast or holiday, but not on the weekly rest day, when one of the reasons listed in article 71(3) exists; the worker then receives double pay on top of the ordinary wage, under article 74(2). A holiday that falls in the middle of annual leave is not taken out of the annual balance, under article 74(3).

Annual leave in brief

Once the first year of service is complete, the worker earns paid annual leave with a statutory floor of twenty-one days, raised to thirty days in dangerous, exhausting or harmful work, and lengthened as service with the same employer grows, under article 75. A fixed-term worker and a trainee earn leave in proportion to the length of the contract before it ends, under article 74(4). A juvenile who may lawfully be employed is entitled to thirty days a year, under article 99. For part-time work the days are worked out in proportion to hours and pay, under article 39(4). Any deal to give up the statutory minimum in return for money is void, under article 79.

Sick leave and who pays for it

The yearly sick-leave allowance is thirty days at full pay, carried by the employer, and unused days may build up to one hundred and eighty, under article 80. It is granted on a medical report, either from the medical provider the employer relies on or from a public health body, and the period counts as actual service, under article 81. If an insured worker uses up the paid allowance and is still unwell, the Workers' Pension and Social Security Law takes over. Whatever the employer paid beyond thirty days in a year can be recovered from the Workers' Pension and Social Security Department, under article 80(3) and (4).

Family events and public duties

Article 82 fixes paid leave for certain personal events by number of days: the worker's own marriage gives five days, the marriage of a son or daughter one day, and the death of a close relative five days. The close relatives listed are the spouse, parents, children, brothers and sisters, and the spouse's parents. An insured female worker whose husband dies spends her waiting period (iddah) on leave of one hundred and thirty days at full pay, under article 82(2).

Paid leave is also due for official or public duties, such as voting, or appearing in court as a witness or expert, and for other cases named in the law or in a collective agreement, under article 82(4). Paid leave for trade-union duties depends on the applicable collective agreement providing for it, under article 82(5).

Hajj leave and unpaid leave

Hajj leave is unpaid and is granted once in the whole working life, at the worker's request, under article 82(3). Separately, where needed the employer may agree to give the worker unpaid leave on request, under article 82(6). That last one is at the employer's discretion, unlike the leave types above, which the statute itself grants.

Pregnancy, birth and caring for a baby

Maternity leave lasts at least fourteen weeks at full pay. The worker may start it up to eight weeks before the expected birth on a medical certificate, and at least six weeks must fall after the birth, under article 87. The competent medical body may extend it to no more than nine months for a difficult or multiple birth or for complications; the extra time is treated as insured leave governed by the social security law, under article 87(5). At the end she is guaranteed a return to her job, or an equivalent one, on the same pay.

She may not take paid work with someone else during maternity leave, under article 88. With the employer's agreement she may also take a special unpaid childcare leave of up to one year to look after a child under one year old, during which the contract is suspended, under article 89. If she is found working for pay elsewhere during that time, the leave is treated as cancelled, under article 90.

Reading the map in practice

Three questions settle most disputes. Which article creates the leave? Is it a right the worker holds by statute, or something the employer may grant? And who pays: the employer, or the pension and social security department? The rights in the Labour Law are a floor that no contract or agreement may go below, under article 14. Writing leave periods and the way to request them into the workplace's internal rules is useful, because article 78 leaves the timing of annual leave to those rules.

The office follows these provisions from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk.

Legal basis and sources

Frequently asked questions

Is marriage or bereavement leave taken out of annual leave?

The text does not link them. Article 82 grants these days as separate paid leave for personal reasons, while annual leave is governed by articles 75 and 79.

Can the employer refuse Hajj leave?

The statute makes it unpaid leave granted once during the working life and at the worker's request, under article 82(3). It did not make it depend on the employer's consent, as it did for general unpaid leave.

Who pays when sick leave runs long?

The employer pays thirty days a year. For an insured worker, anything paid beyond that is recovered by the employer from the Workers' Pension and Social Security Department, under article 80.

Is leave different on a fixed-term contract?

A fixed-term contract gives the same rights as a permanent one, under article 38(3), and annual leave is counted in proportion to the contract's length, under article 74(4).

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

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Types of leave under Iraqi Labour Law No. 37 of 2015