The employer’s occupational safety and health duties
The Law Office of Ali Barakat, from Baghdad, al-Yarmouk, sets out occupational safety and health duties in a private project as drawn by Labour Law No. 37 of 2015 in the first branch of Chapter Thirteen. The source is the text published in the Official Gazette, issue 4386, of 9/11/2015, articles 113 to 123. This page names the employer’s duties, the workers’ duties, and the role of the National Center for Occupational Safety and Health. It does not exhaust the compensation path after an injury, nor the first-aid and reporting steps; each has a page of its own.
The National Center and cooperation inside the project
The National Center for Occupational Safety and Health is charged with planning and monitoring the implementation of occupational safety and health affairs, so as to spread a culture of safety and to protect workers, in the various workplaces, from occupational diseases and work injuries, under article 113. Through this Center, the Ministry prepares a national policy, and develops and reviews it at regular intervals in consultation with employers and workers or their most representative organisations, under article 115. That work includes identifying and assessing occupational risks, monitoring factors that affect workers’ health and safety, advising on work planning and protective equipment, monitoring workers’ health, work injuries and occupational diseases, contributing to vocational rehabilitation, and organising the response to emergencies and first aid.
Cooperation between the employer or the management and the workers or their representatives in the project is treated as an essential element in improving safety and health conditions at project and workplace level, under article 114. To that end: a decent, healthy, and safe work environment is to be provided; workers are to be trained in avoiding occupational risks; a culture of safety is to be spread and the rules on occupational hazards are to be posted in a visible place; first-aid supplies are to be provided; pre-employment and periodic medical examinations are to be carried out; the authorised health body is to be notified of work accidents, injuries, and occupational diseases as soon as they occur, and the Center is to be informed, in accordance with the unified form the Center circulates, and an annual report of accidents and injuries is to be prepared for the Center for workplaces with more than fifty workers; all measures needed to protect workers are to be taken, including the annual periodic examination of steam boilers, pressure equipment, electric lifts, and lifting gear by bodies authorised by the Center; suitable personal protective equipment is to be provided without any worker bearing a financial cost; and the safety of machinery is established by a report of fitness issued by bodies officially authorised by the Center. The Center may grant occupational safety and health licences to a project after the requirements are met and the workers are examined, against fees set by instructions issued by the Minister.
What lies on the employer and on the worker?
The employer is responsible for providing the minimum occupational safety and health requirements in all projects in which workers are employed and in the equipment there, according to instructions issued by the Minister after consultation between the most representative workers’ and employers’ organisations, under article 116. The employer must, in writing and before the worker starts work, inform the worker of the occupational risks and of the preventive measures to be taken, and must post the rules on those risks in a visible place, under article 117. The employer must take the measures needed to protect workers during work from occupational and machinery hazards, provide protective means without deducting any sum from the worker’s wage in return, and provide first aid proportionate to the type of work in designated, known places, under article 118. The Center prepares instructions on protective means and the conditions for their use, which the Minister issues.
The employer must guarantee occupational safety and workers’ health in every respect connected with the work, under article 120. Workers’ failure to comply with the legal safety standards is not a ground for releasing the employer from the duties set in this field. The worker does not bear the costs of providing a healthy and safe work environment, including medical care, prescribed medicines, and periodic, laboratory, radiological, and other examinations.
If the number of workers exceeds fifty, the employer must employ a nurse trained in first aid and contract with a private physician to treat the workers in a clinic at the workplace, and must provide the medicines and treatments needed during work without charge, under article 121. If the number exceeds one hundred, that physician’s attendance must be at least two hours a day. If it exceeds five hundred, a resident physician is appointed and a clinic is established with the means of examination, first aid, and treatment. Employers in several projects within the same district or municipality may establish a common clinic for that purpose. The employer must provide the precautions and implement the instructions in articles 118 and 121, under article 122. Labour inspectors record observations on the level of compliance in the visit report. The Ministry may close the workplace or stop a machine after a warning, in the cases that article describes, and workers are entitled to their full wages for the period of closure or stoppage.
Workers are bound, under article 119, to follow prevention orders and to use the appropriate means, not to bring intoxicants into the site or to attend under their influence, to comply with the instructions and with the dates of periodic medical examination as decided by the project physician or the medical body the text designates, to wear protective equipment, to leave the site where there is a real danger, and to cooperate with the employer. Workers’ representatives must cooperate in this field, and may consult their organisations on condition that trade secrets are not disclosed, under article 123.
The steps after an accident are in What to do if a worker is injured at work, and the compensation path is in Work injury between the Labour Law and the workers’ social-security law.
Legal basis and sources
Frequently asked questions
May the cost of protective equipment be deducted from the worker’s wage?
No. Article 114 requires suitable personal protective equipment to be provided without any worker bearing a financial cost, and article 118 forbids deducting any sum from the wage in return for providing protective means. Article 120 confirms that the worker does not bear the costs of a healthy and safe work environment.
Does a worker’s failure to comply release the employer from the safety duty?
No. Article 120, second, states that workers’ failure to comply with the legal safety standards is not a ground for releasing the employer from the duties set in this field.
When must a project have a physician at the workplace?
Article 121 ties the duty to have a nurse and a physician in a workplace clinic to a workforce of more than fifty, increases the physician’s attendance if the number exceeds one hundred, and requires a resident physician and a clinic if the number exceeds five hundred.
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